Wish Granted
by AdventureAddict
Summary: Rebecca doesn't feel like she's pretty, brave or athletic, the traits of girls who usually end up in fanfics. In Ed's world. So she's content to live a normal, peaceful life. But then one day she finds herself in a frightening position-the main character.
1. Chapter 1

_**Chapter One – Concerning Bikes, Walkmans and Telephone Calls**_

I slowly opened my eyes and let them adjust to the dim light of the room I was in. I found myself lying in a cozy bed with a pile of thick covers drawn up to my chin. Curtains covered the small window across from me and the only source of light was a small candle next to a glass of water on the nightstand beside me.

I found myself briefly wondering why there weren't lights powered by electricity in the room, but then I grabbed the glass of water and drank from it greedily. The water was cool and soothing, helping push away some of the pain in my head. My head hurt terribly. I had only had a migraine once in my lifetime, and I did not enjoy remembering it.

After taking a long drink from the glass, I dipped my right hand into the remaining water and then pressed my wet hand against my forehead. The cool water helped to soothe my headache as I tried to remember what had happened to get me in this situation.

I could remember riding my bike home from Sabrina's. I felt a swell of pride as I remembered that we had finished watching the last few episodes of Fullmetal Alchemist together. I had now read all the manga (that had been published so far), seen all the episodes of the anime, and watched the movie. No longer would I have to worry about spoilers in fanfiction, because nothing could be spoiled for me anymore. My FMA knowledge was almost as up to par as my Harry Potter knowledge, which had taken me years to accumulate. FMA had just been one highly compacted year during which I had focused on reading whatever manga I could get my hands on, (luckily I had a friend a year younger than me that owned practically every manga you could ever want to read) wrote fanfiction that I had mixed success with, and going over to Sabrina's house to watch her downloaded episodes of the anime.

I could remember how we had watched the end of the anime over giggles and many glasses of juice. I could remember how Sabrina's dad was worried about the computer crashing because it looked like a storm would start soon. And then I had foolishly turned down an offer for a ride and opted to take my bike home instead.

The ride home from Sabrina's house wasn't a long one at my pace, maybe fifteen minutes. It was summer, and I loved to ride my bike all over town to help battle the heat. Triumia is one of those small towns – but not as small as Resembool – where you can park your bike on the street and feel comfortable in knowing that no one will steal it.

Not that anyone would want to steal my bike anyway. It looked like a four-year old bike that had been enlarged in order to fit a sixteen-year old on it. Which meant that the main two colors were hot pink and a very bright purple. It had handbrakes, but only the ones connected to the front wheel worked properly. If I wanted the ones on the back to work properly, I had to squeeze extra hard in order to get them to press down slightly. Every now and then the chain would get disconnected, and I quickly got good at learning to reconnect it, which would leave my hands covered in black oil spots. But I was okay with black oil spots, since I would look down and think of Winry at the sight of my stained hands.

I was obsessed, to say the least. Nearly every other word would get me thinking of FMA or some new fanfic I could write for it. I was almost glad I didn't have enough time to write all the different fanfics that popped into my mind. I hadn't even had enough time to ever get past FMA fanfiction and move on to Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings, or even Pirates of the Caribbean, some of my other obsessions. Of course I also had ideas for those, but stories of wizards, hobbits or pirates didn't seem quite as pressing as stories of alchemists. So I continued to write only FMA fanfiction, but I made sure I kept a generic penname.

With a different name, I felt so much more confident and sure of myself. Slowly the shy exterior of myself peeled away to reveal a new version of myself that was more confident and headstrong. Online I became a new girl that was willing to write things that others could actually read, give her opinions and offer constructive criticism at times. And I was pleased to know that there were actually people who wanted to hear my opinions, who wanted to read the things I had written. My last English teacher had bashed my writing, so my confidence soared when I heard that others actually _liked_ my writing. Eventually I got to the point where I was always thinking of new ideas for stories, sometimes fanfiction, sometimes not.

So naturally that was what I had been doing when I had been riding my bike home from Sabrina's that day. I couldn't remember the exact story I had been thinking of, but I could remember thinking about the story as huge drops of rain started to fall on me.

At first the rain had been nice, since it was the middle of summer and had been scorching hot for weeks. The rain was really a nice alterative. It was almost like taking a shower in your clothes with nice trees all around you instead of white tile. And I also loved the smell of rain. I knew that my mom didn't really ever like staying out in the rain long enough to smell it, but both my father and I loved the smell of fresh, wet rain.

But the rain got tiresome very quickly. My glasses were soon impossible to see out of, and the rain was falling so fast that it didn't matter if I wiped them off or not. My clothes were soon soaked, and instead of feeling light and refreshed, I soon started to feel drenched and miserable. I could remember riding my bike as fast as I dared in hopes of getting home quicker, which made the rain hit me even more.

After that, the details started getting foggier in my mind. I could remember the sky booming with thunder and making me even more worried, crossing the one way street and starting up the hill that led to my home, and then bright light and intense pain. Then I had woken up here, in this strange room I couldn't remember.

I reached over to the nightstand and put on my glasses, which had been kindly folded and set aside for me. The room sprang into focus as I tried to puzzle out where I was. Dark shadows stretched from the different pieces of furniture in the room and flickered in the candlelight, making the room look much more ominous than it really was. I knew it wasn't dangerous because the blankets pulled around me were nice thick quilts with flowery designs stitched into them. If there had been a cat calendar on the wall, I would have guessed I was in my grandmother's sewing/guest room.

As I thought, I slowly took in a few more of my surroundings. Whoever had put me in bed had been kind enough to take my shoes and wet clothes off. A borrowed nightgown hung loosely over my shoulders, and my old clothes were folded neatly in a chair across the room from me. I quickly edged across the room to the chair and pulled on my socks as fast as I could. I had gotten too many splinters in my feet over the course of my life to trust any floor enough to go barefoot.

I glanced down at the floor and noticed my drawstring bag sitting there, looking as if it hadn't been touched. I quickly opened it and sifted through a few items just to make sure there were all there. As soon as I saw that my Walkman was still in there, I immediately relaxed. Whoever owned this house had a good conscience, since my Walkman was the most expensive thing in my bag. I carefully pulled the bag closed again and sat it upright next to the chair.

I eventually came up with several theories about where I was, with the most practical being the idea that I had probably gotten injured somehow, like hitting a car or passing out on the sidewalk. Some nice family had probably taken me home to recuperate and they were using a candle because the power had gone out during the storm. But my favorite idea was the thought that I had finally traveled back in time or even to another world to finally have my own adventure, just like the ones I'd always read about so ravenously. This theory always came up when I was in a situation I didn't know, no matter how ridiculous it seemed each time and no matter how many times I was proved wrong. I knew I would eventually have to accept the fact that I would probably have an average life without crazy aliens, magicians, pirates, mutants, dragons or even alchemists in it, but I didn't want to just yet.

I slowly pushed the blankets off me, even though I despised the loss of them. It was really chilly for summer, but I pushed the thought away and decided that it was cool because of the storm. Someone had probably left the windows open and let in a nice draft.

I slowly walked down the hallway and into a larger room, which I guessed must be the living room. I couldn't see a TV around, but a girl about my age sat silently on the sofa, her face intently buried in a book. She had the book tilted so I couldn't see the title, but it seemed like it must be a pretty good book for her to be reading it in what I guessed was the middle of the night, thanks to the blackened windows on one of the walls in the room. One of the floorboards creaked as I stepped closer to see the cover of her book, and she looked up at me in shock.

I nearly laughed in surprise. I would have thought Winry Rockbell was sitting in front of me if it wasn't for the fact that she didn't look anything like I would have thought Winry would look like in person. Her hair was long and blond, but not in the usual ponytail I had seen on Winry so many times, and the face didn't seem quite right either. She looked like she _could _be Winry, but at the same time, she didn't look like she couldn't possibly be Winry. Maybe that was because she was actually a real person instead of a drawing. I smiled, and silently told myself for the millionth time that I needed some _serious_ help. She was probably just some nice girl from school I had never noticed because I was always so intent on getting to my classes.

"Um, hi," I said nervously, sure that she wouldn't have heard it because I was so quiet. My throat almost felt a little raw, so I coughed to make my voice louder, feeling the tickle of phlegm at the back of my throat. I hoped I hadn't caught a cold thanks to the rainstorm.

"Hi," the girl said back with a smile in my direction. I felt immediately warmed by instant kindness and smiled back at her happily. "It's good to see you're all right," she said with a pleased grin. "You know, you shouldn't go out in serious storms like that."

"Yeah, I know," I laughed. "So how'd my bike mange?" Even if I hated my bike at times and had deemed it 'a useless heap of scrap,' it had always managed to take me where I wanted to go. I was still attached to the geeky, clunky old machine, no matter how many times I insulted it. I wanted to know that it was at least good enough to get home in one piece, though I doubted anything bad had happened to it. The stupid old bike was too stubborn to _really_ stop working on me.

"Oh, it had a few problems, so I took it out back to fix it up," the girl answered, seeming a little nervous by the question.

"What kind of problems?" I asked worriedly, hoping that it was only something simple, like a flat tire. I really didn't have the money to put all sorts of money into fixing it. I decided that if it were too bad, I would just get rid of it and buy a new one at a garage sale for five bucks, like I had been doing with bikes for years. They had all served me well enough until they broke down or I outgrew them, and I didn't need to travel in luxury, I just needed something to get me from point A to point B.

"Well, the brakes for the back tire aren't working," the blond girl said slowly, and I shrugged. I didn't care about the rear brakes; they had never worked for me. "And there were some dents and stuff…"

"Could I see?" I asked nervously. The girl looked at me with a pair of wide blue eyes, and then nodded. She led me through the house and out to a back door that opened onto a dark lawn. The rain had stopped, but I could still feel the dampness in the air. And it was a colder night than I would have expected for summer. It almost felt like it could be fall instead.

"So where's my bike?" I asked as my eyes scanned over the dark land. I couldn't see a bike anywhere, so I looked back to the blond girl by my side. She simply pointed down to the ground beneath my feet. I was about to object and tell her that my bike wasn't there when I suddenly noticed a small glimmer in the darkness. I looked closer and realized that it was a small silver gear. I slowly let my eyes adjust to the darkness and saw that my bike was scattered in pieces across the yard.

"What did you do to my bike?!" I shouted, sinking to my knees in despair.

"I'm sorry!!" the girl quickly shouted as I grabbed my handlebars and clutched at them protectively. "It had so many problems, and I figured I could just take it apart and-and-! I thought I'd be able to put it back together tomorrow morning! I didn't know you would wake up early!" A small chuckle escaped from my lips, and I stood up and faced the girl again, dropping the handlebars to the ground.

"You remind me of a girl I once knew. She tried to steal her friend's pocket watch just so she could take it apart to see how it worked," I laughed. I was, of course, talking about Winry Rockbell, but I didn't feel like talking much, so I didn't tell her how much of a fan I was of FMA, just in case she knew of it and wanted to talk about it with me. I just wanted to go back to bed and sleep now.

"Promise you'll put it back together tomorrow?" I asked as a small yawn slipped from my lips. The girl nodded enthusiastically, but I still wanted to be absolutely sure I would have my bike back the next day.

"Pinkie swear?" I asked as I held my right pinkie out towards her. The girl nodded in agreement and locked her pinkie with mine. "All right," I sighed. "Then I'm going back to bed." I turned to walk back inside the house, but then suddenly remembered something and turned back to the girl.

"My name's Rebecca," I said, hurriedly sticking out my hand for her to shake. Even in the darkness I could see the girl smile as she wrapped her fingers around mine in a strong grip.

"My name is Winry," she told me kindly, but I immediately dropped her hand as if it was on fire. Winry? It couldn't be! Maybe her face looked a little like Winry's, but it couldn't really be her…!

"Yeah, right. Very funny. Ha ha. We all got a joke on the stupid obsessed girl. And I thought you were nice," I snorted angrily as I glared at the girl in front of me. "Now what's your real name?"

"No! My name really is Winry Rockbell!" the girl protested quickly. "Really! I'm not trying to be mean!" I rolled my eyes and looked up at the sky to show her the Big Dipper and prove her wrong, except I forgot that I could never find the Big Dipper among the countless stars. I sighed and dropped my head again, but this time I caught a scent of something familiar. The river. I had lived in a town right next to a river, and had grown up on that smell. Even though I couldn't swim, I had always been attracted to the river and paths beside it. Some days I spent hours just riding next to the river and enjoying nature.

I turned my head in the direction of the river-smell and start running towards it, my previous sleepiness forgotten. I would prove that girl wrong. I would know the second I laid eyes on that river that it was the same river I had know all my life, and that this wasn't Resembool. It couldn't be. It just didn't make sense. When was I the one to start having adventures? This was just some mean kids playing a trick on me again. I wouldn't let them get the better of me. I would expose their little trick and make them all feel wrong for being so mean to me.

I eventually slowed down, a stitch in my side and my breath coming out in wheezes. I clutched a hand to my side to try and ease the pain, and slowed my breaths, but I kept walking in what I hoped was the direction of the river.

I eventually got to the river, still wearing the borrowed nightgown from before. I felt foolish in it as cold breezes kept whipping straight through me, and a few times I quickly grabbed the nightgown in order to keep it from blowing up and showing my underwear. Even when no one was around and it was pitch black outside, I was still shy and modest. I didn't even want the possibility of someone seeing my underwear.

I crouched a good distance away from the river, remembering all the warnings my mother had given me about drowning. I could feel cold mud pressing against my knees, but I didn't care as I looked out across the water.

This wasn't my river.

I knew the second I saw the dark water glittering in the moonlight. Everything was wrong. The proportions were off, the trees weren't the same, there wasn't a bike path beside it…

But mostly I just _knew_. It wasn't my river. Even if I wasn't in Resembool, I was still a long way from home. I knew that I was definitely far enough that I wouldn't be able to ride my bike home. I could hear soft footsteps behind me and glanced over my shoulder to see Winry walking towards me. I turned back to looking at the river wearily and let her walk up next to me.

"You should come back to the house," she said as she gently draped a blanket over my shoulders. I hugged at the thick fabric as I kept staring wordlessly at the river. I could hear the river gently sloshing over stones and other things in the way, and realized that it didn't even _sound _like the river back home. The river I knew always made me want to pee with the way it crashed into anything in its path.

"This isn't the way it's supposed to work," I mumbled under my breath. "I'm supposed to be the one who stays at home and writes about this sort of thing happening to other girls that can handle it better. It's not supposed to happen to me."

"Come on," Winry said, lightly tugging at me. "Let's get you back to the house. It's cold outside." I slowly got up and let her lead me back to the house, where I immediately collapsed on the bed I had been in earlier and fell asleep.

* * *

I slowly opened my eyes the next morning, but I didn't immediately crawl out of bed. Instead I just stared silently at the ceiling, realizing that I was in the same room as yesterday, and therefore, still in the Rockbell home. This really was happening to me, somehow.

I rolled onto my side and curled into the fetal position, hugging at my dirty knees. This wasn't right. This wasn't right at all. The girls that ended up in Amestris were brave, pretty, athletic, courageous, and somehow always knew what to say. I wasn't any of those things. I was the writer that put the perfect girls into these situations. I wasn't supposed to be the one that ended up in here.

I sighed and slowly crawled out of bed. I grabbed my drawstring bag again and dumped all the contents out onto the floor. I hadn't really unpacked the bag since the Fourth of July, so some of the items in there were a little ridiculous for just visiting a friend, but I was glad I hadn't unpacked them, since I realized that a good chunk of them would be valuable things to have in a world other than my own.

The first object was my Pirates of the Caribbean baseball hat, which I immediately tugged on. It was a bright red with a large pink spot and rather worn threads, but I had been wearing for most of summer thanks to the bright sun. A dark line drawing of a sword going through two hearts covered most of the pink spot, and a banner ran around it proclaiming 'PIRATES FOR LIFE' in flowing script.

I then pulled out a sturdy jeans jacket that I had packed for the late night on the Fourth of July. I hadn't actually worn it that night, but I was now glad I hadn't taken it out. It was a bit colder here already, and I didn't know how long I would be stuck here. The jacket still fit my arms, but my chest had gotten too big to allow me to button it. But since my mom had decorated it for my aunt back when she was in college, I still treasured it. A wide variety of wildflowers ran along the collar and the bottom of the jacket, but the real accomplishment was the large sunset on the back of the shoulders. My mom had often told me about how long it had taken her to finish the sunset, which had been made with hundreds of tiny knot-stitches. I could practically feel my mother's love surrounding me every time I put the jacket on.

There was also a pair of knuckle gloves in the bag. I hadn't really had a reason for packing them earlier, but somehow I felt like they would be useful now. They had nice thick pads in the center of the palms, but the cloth stopped halfway up my fingers so I could move them freely. I had always been grateful for their coloring of black and white that allowed me to wear them with any outfit I wanted without clashing. They worked well for gripping things and keeping my fingers warm without constraining them.

Then there were some more practical items. Bug spray, sunscreen, twelve chewable Benadryl tablets (which would be about six doses for me), four new batteries (in case the ones in my Walkman died), a small first aid kit for cuts and scrapes, and my inhaler for my asthma. I even had my hairbrush and a couple strawberry Lip Smackers, which I had discovered worked well as both a chapstick and lip-gloss. I even had a Koosh ball left in my bag for entertainment purposes.

Then there was my Walkman, one of my better possessions. I had saved money from a summer job once to pay for it, and when I went to buy it, I made sure I got the best possible Walkman I could for my money. It was a Panasonic, a company I trusted, and it had an anti-skip system and could even play MP3 discs. I once broke the original set of headphones, but I quickly replaced them a few weeks later. I had even put some money into a nice sturdy CD holder that would be able to hold my entire CD collection, which was a grand total of about 18 CDs. The hinge had fallen apart once, but I had managed to put it back together, and it had been holding out fine ever since, just like my Walkman. They had both served me well so far, and in return I hadn't gotten an ipod to replace them yet.

And then the reader/writer side of me started to show in my possessions. First there was my copy of the first FMA manga, which was like an old friend to me by now. The covers were starting to curl, and the back even had an old fold in it, but I still flipped through it when I needed inspiration for my fanfic.

And of course, there was my other book-friend, The Two Princesses of Bamarre. I had read through it many times, but there was still a bookmark stuck in the middle to hold my place. I had first read the book when my best friend had given it to me to read, so I figured it was only appropriate that the story was about two sisters. After all, Sarah and I had felt like we were sisters so often that I think we almost started to believe it. I flipped it open to the bookmark, and found that I had just stuck in a picture of Ed to hold my place instead. I could still remember printing the picture in order to hang it in my locker back when my obsession had first started.

And the last item I had managed to bring along was my writing notebook and four pencils. I had bought the small purple notebook for six dollars at the beginning of summer, promising myself that it would be full before school started again. In hopes of achieving that goal, I had taken the notebook with me everywhere, so I could write in it whenever I got a spare moment. I opened to a random page and discovered that I had put one of my old bulletins from church there from lack of a better place. I smiled gently at it and then closed the notebook again. I knew I had written bits and pieces fanfic in there, and I really didn't want to see them.

I took off my baseball hat again and swept it to the side with all the other objects that I realized were now my only possessions other than my bike and clothes. Just the other day I had my own room, a bed, a desk, and even a borrowed laptop from my father. Now I had practically nothing. I didn't even know the land I was in very well. All I knew about it was things I had learned from manga and anime.

I pulled the nightgown up over my head and started to slowly change into my clothes. First was my pair of large, baggy, army green cargo pants. I had to wear a brown studded belt in order to keep them on my hips, but I had always appreciated the pants for their comfort. They also had tons of pockets, which I normally didn't like to store objects in, since it ended up pulling my pants down.

Then I pulled on my plain white shirt. I had gotten it for reading a certain number of books in a reading program at the library once, so the words "Get Caught Reading" were across the top in big black letters. It was rather large for me, so it didn't show off any curves I had, but at least it didn't constrain me at all. I then grabbed my jeans jacket, POTC hat and knuckle gloves, putting them all on quickly. Even though I didn't bother to look in mirror, I knew that I was probably starting to look more like an adventurer, even if I didn't feel like one yet. I slowly packed all the rest of my stuff into the bag again and slung it over my right shoulder. I didn't know how I would do it, but I knew that somehow I had to find out whether I was in the manga or anime version of FMA.

I slowly walked out to the backyard as I thought of possible ideas to find out. Winry was already kneeling in the grass outside, sorting through various bike parts. When she heard my footsteps on the grass, she smiled up at me and wiped her greasy hands on her pants. She was now in the normal outfit that really made me realize that she really was Winry. Her hair was pulled back into its usual ponytail, and she was wearing the trademark outfit of her work one-piece that had been tied around her waist, revealing the tube top underneath. I suddenly felt a little jealous of her, since I knew I could never feel confident enough to wear that sort of outfit around anyone.

"Good morning," Winry said cheerily as she pushed herself up into a standing position. "I didn't think you would wake up this early. You were up late last night."

"I never really sleep well in beds other than my own," I shrugged, while thinking of how she had been up just as late as me, if not later. I started wondering what time it really was, so I glanced down at the sliver watch on my right wrist. The small purple face told me that it was only 6:15 in the morning. My plan wouldn't work until later in the day, so I knew I would have to find a way to kill some time.

"I guess I'll go read a book," I sighed, and then turned to Winry. "You go ahead and keep working on that, if you want." I walked back into the house and into the room I had been staying in, where I opened my bag and pulled out my Walkman and The Two Princesses of Bamarre. I knew I had to be careful with the Walkman, because if Winry ever saw it, then it would end up in a million pieces.

I flipped open the lid to check what CD was inside, and was greeted by a familiar golden disc with the words "Fullmetal Alchemist Songs of Awesomeness!" scrawled on it. Sabrina had made the CD for me a while back, and I knew all the songs on it by heart.

Okay, so I couldn't sing the Japanese words to save my life, but I did know the tunes by heart. I could definitely hum along with the songs, even though I couldn't actually sing the words. I knew Sabrina could, but I hadn't gotten that obsessed yet. I grinned to myself and snapped the Walkman shut again, and then pressed the "Play" button, ready to skip ahead to track number six, READY STEADY GO!

But to my surprise, the Walkman didn't respond. I checked to make sure the CD was snapped in properly and tried again, but it still didn't work.

"Come on," I growled angrily at the machine as I reached into my bag for a pair of new batteries. "I just changed your batteries a few days ago! You can't be dead yet!" I quickly pulled the old batteries out of their spots and replaced them with new ones, snapped the CD inside again and closed the lid. I tried pressing play once more, and still nothing happened. I sighed angrily and started checking and rechecking every possible thing that could be wrong with the machine, but found nothing. I kept trying to get it to play until I finally realized something.

"Walkmans haven't been invented yet," I sighed, flopping backwards on the bed. This kind of advanced technology wasn't yet in Amestris, and I couldn't bring in. "Equivalent Exchange," I muttered to myself. "You're in Ed's world, but without your music." I sighed and rolled over onto my stomach, grabbing the book. So maybe I didn't have music, but at least I could still read.

Winry came in about an hour and a half later, telling me that my bike was done and wondering if I wanted any breakfast. I quickly snapped my book shut and hurried out after her, the smell of scrambled eggs starting to affect my stomach.

"So Winry, you know the Elric brothers, right?" I asked as I took a forkful of eggs. I tried to make it sound as casual as I could, but I knew I still surprised Winry when she suddenly looked up from her breakfast.

"Yes," she said slowly. "How did you know that?"

"Oh, they're pretty famous," I shrugged carelessly, hoping that she wouldn't press the matter too far. "You know, I've heard stuff here and there. Edward is always talking about how he's got the greatest automail mechanic, so I remembered your name." Winry smiled at the thought of Ed telling everybody about the world's best automail mechanic, and I smiled back at her, glad the flattery was working.

"Do you know them?" Winry asked with a mixture of suspicion and excitement in her voice. "Have you seen them recently?"

"No," I sighed. "I wish I knew them. I was hoping you had seen them recently so that I could meet them." I was also wondering where Pinako was, but I didn't want to press my luck and ask more questions than I could make excuses for.

Winry sighed and looked back down at her eggs. "I haven't seen them for a while. Usually Ed would have done _something_ to his automail by now. I'm kind of worried about them."

I wanted to snort and mention how she was always worried about them when they weren't around her, but instead I smiled sympathetically and went back to eating my eggs.

"So what about you?" Winry asked. I looked up at her with what must have been a confused expression, because she then clarified, "What about your family? You got some relatives waiting for you somewhere?"

"Yeah, I got two crazy little brothers waiting for me at home," I said with a bit of a chuckle. "Michael and Paul. They're really insane sometimes, but I still love them to bits."

"That sounds like Ed and Al," Winry said with a weak smile. I could tell she was still busy worrying about them, so I decided to try and distract her.

"Yeah," I said. "They always seemed a little like the Elrics from the stories I heard of them. Like Michael – he's kind of small and wiry for his age, but he can lift… what was it – 300 pounds? I think it was 300 pounds - with his legs. So whenever I wasn't doing what he wanted, he would threaten me by saying, 'Hey, my legs can lift 300 pounds, so you better watch out!' and then I'd tell him, 'Yeah, well I can lift that much with my arms, so shut up, small fry.' And then he always got mad at me for calling him small." I smiled at the memory of Michael, and Winry smiled back at me. "And I was only calling him small because he was smaller than me. I didn't realize until I saw all the kids at his school that he really was pretty small. It looked like he was at least a couple years younger than all the kids there when he was really their age."

"And what about the other one?" Winry asked, starting to get a little more enthusiastic. I normally didn't like talking this much to people I didn't know so well, but I was more than willing to brag about my brothers. Besides, I had seen and read so much FMA that I already felt like I was friends with Winry, even if she didn't fell like that with me.

"Paul? He's so cute," I practically cooed. The word 'Hughes' popped into my head but I kept going. "He's ten – two years younger than Michael. Sometimes I'll just be sitting out on the couch, and Paul will come out and snuggle up next to me. And if I ask him something like, 'What are you trying to get? You know I'm broke, right?' and he'll say that he just needs his snuggle time for the day."

"That does sound similar to Al," Winry said, now smiling broadly. "I didn't think there was anybody else out there like Ed and Al," she laughed.

"Well, Paul's not completely like Al," I said, laughing with her. "When he melts down, you really don't want to be around him."

"What, you think Al never melts down?" Winry said, her shoulders now shaking with the giggles. "One time he got really angry and blew up because there weren't any pencils with good erasers." We both laughed together over the thought of Al throwing a fit over pencils.

"Hey Winry? Do mind if I use your phone?" I asked once we had both settled down.

"Sure," Winry said pleasantly as she took the two empty plates out to the sink. "I'm going to go take Den out for a walk."

Perfect, I thought. I didn't want her to hear the phone call I was going to make, since it would probably raise any suspicions she had considerably.

"Have fun," I called behind her as she walked out the door to go find Den. I then lunged for the phone and quickly dialed zero.

"Hello, operator?" I said quickly, pressing the phone to my ear. I was desperately hoping that my plan would work. "Could you please connect me to the Military Headquarters in Central?"

"Hold please."

"Thanks," I sighed as the phone fell silent. I almost wished they had music on the line, but I was more worried about catching the line that would tell me I was connected to the military.

"Hello, Central Military Command, how may I help you?" a voice finally said, and I almost wanted to scream or cry in relief. I _hated_ being on hold, especially in an empty house with no one to talk to.

"Um...is Edward Elric there?" I asked hesitantly, and then waited as the woman checked.

"No he is not," she told me, and I sighed partly in disappointment that I wouldn't get to talk to Ed, but also partly in relief that I wouldn't _have_ to. I had no clue what I could possibly say to Edward Elric, the Fullmetal Alchemist, only a 2-D drawing until yesterday. Sheesh. The guy had fangirls from here to the moon. I had no clue what I could possibly say that would even make him pay attention.

"I've been told that he's currently out conducting research," the woman informed me. "Do you want me to take down a message to give to him once he returns?"

"Uh…No," I stammered. "Could you please connect me to Colonel Roy Mustang instead?" I was just as nervous about talking to Roy, but I knew I had to find out whether I was stuck in the manga or the anime. I knew it would be very important soon enough.

"Who is calling?" the woman asked. I thought I detected a hint of suspicion in her voice, but I wasn't sure.

"A-A-Alphonse Elric," I stammered, the phone shaking in my hands. I felt really guilty for impersonating someone as good and honest as Al, but I had to speak to Mustang. I _had_ to.

"Code please," the woman said briskly.

"Uncle-Sugar…" I started, trying to remember the code Hughes had used in the manga before envy had killed him. The next one had been olive, right? I decided it was the best choice I had, and went with it. "O-Olive-Eight-Zero-Zero," I finally stammered out, sweat sliding down my brow as the woman on the other end went silent.

"Al? What is it? What's wrong?" I finally heard Roy say, and I nearly sank to my knees in relief. I was on the phone with Roy Mustang! Now I just had to tell him that I wasn't really Al.

"I sorry sir," I stammered quickly, but Roy cut me off before I had a chance to finish.

"Dammit Al, don't apologize! Just tell me what the hell is going on!" Roy shouted into the phone. He sounded like he was really, really angry, but I figured that he was actually worried. Al must have never called him like this before.

"Please sir, I'm not Alphonse, I just need to-"

"You're not Alphonse?! Who are you?!" Roy bellowed, making me hold the phone away from my ear. "How did you find out how to call me here?!"

"Hughes," I practically whispered, hoping that it would catch his attention and make him listen to me. Roy was silent for I moment as I desperately wished he would continue the conversation, and then the line went dead.

I slowly put the phone back in its cradle as I willed myself not to cry. My first encounter with a male FMA character, and it had been a total disaster.

* * *

I tried to get myself to forget about the incident by going back to reading my book, but it didn't work very well. Every few minutes I'd notice that I hadn't understood any of the words I'd just read, and would have to go back and reread the whole paragraph. My words from the conversation with Roy kept ringing in my head, reminding me of how much of an idiot I was. Who was I to think that Roy Mustang would actually listen to me? I had to accept that I had been a nobody in my world, and I was a nobody in this world. I wasn't a brave adventurer, and I probably wasn't ever going to be one, so it was time to move on.

The ring of the phone suddenly jerked me out of my thoughts. I slowly closed the book again and walked out to grab the phone. I hoped that it wouldn't be some very demanding automail client, since I didn't really feel like dealing with someone like that.

"Hello," I said slowly, glancing out the window as I said it. I had to stop doing 'brilliant' plans like that. They never did me any good.

"Are you the one who called me earlier?" a deep voice asked sternly, and I knew immediately whom I was talking to. Roy Mustang. I was talking to Roy Mustang on the phone a second time. That probably meant that I was in serious trouble now.

"Please sir," I stammered quickly. There was just something about Roy's voice that made me call him 'sir,' which I figured was probably a good thing. "I didn't mean to- I was just trying to- Please don't hurt me!"

"I'm on an outside line now, so no one will be able to listen in on our conversation."

"Oh," was all that I managed to say. So mentioning Hughes had made him pay attention to me. He obviously thought it was important if he took the trouble to go to an outside line to call me.

"Now who are you?" Roy demanded, making me flinch. I had never thought about how intimidating he really could be when I had watched the anime. I was actually _frightened_ of _Roy_! "And why do you want to talk to me so badly?"

"I- I- I need to ask you some questions," I stammered. I could feel sweat coating my palms and making the phone slide slightly between my hands.

"Fine," Roy agreed, more quickly than I had expected. "But for every question you ask, I get to ask one, or you don't ask any questions." Ah. So that was why he was agreeing so quickly. I suppose that he wanted to know as much about me as he could get.

"Yes, sir," I murmured into the phone. I knew I would have to answer all my questions truthfully, since I would not be very good at lying in such a stressful situation. Roy would see right through any lie I threw at him, so I just had to make sure he asked as few questions as possible. I didn't want to tell him too much and make him really suspicious of me.

"Did any strange flying machines come here once?" I asked timidly. I knew that if he answered no to that, I would still have to ask more questions. I could be at any point in the anime, after all. There was no rule that said I had to come in _after _the movie.

"No," Roy replied curtly. "What's your name?"

"Rebecca Jacobson," I told him softly, knowing that the name might sound 'weird' by his standards. "Is- Is Alphonse Elric still taller than you?" I asked slowly. I could hear Roy pause on his side of the phone.

"Yes," he said after a minute of silence. "What do you know about Alphonse?"

"I know he would make a great drum," I muttered with a small chuckle, immediately realizing afterwards that I was giving away too much. I had to tone it down quick. "Does King Bradley have a pretty female assistant?" I asked hesitantly. "Dark, sort of wavy hair, and she tends to look down a lot."

"Yes," Roy told me. My whole mind screamed 'ANIME!' but I decided to keep going. After all, just because Bradley had an assistant that fit the description of Sloth, it didn't mean that she was Sloth. There were probably plenty of pretty women with dark wavy hair that tended to look downward. I had to be absolutely sure which storyline I was in.

"What do you know about Hughes?" Roy asked me, making me gulp. I was almost certain my face had paled, but I could never be exactly sure on what color my face was.

"Well, I know that he was a great father," I started hesitantly, but I knew Roy wouldn't be satisfied with that much. "I knew that he was your friend and was murdered…" I trailed off uncertainly. Forget it. Go for the shocker, I thought to myself. "I know that he was murdered, but not by Second Lieutenant Ross as some people would think. He was really murdered by a homunculus by the name of Envy. I also know that he found out something he shouldn't have about the military, which is why he was killed. I even know that you cried at his funeral," I babbled out, and was greeted by complete silence. Maybe I shouldn't have said the part about crying, I realized I little too late. Men are always sensitive about that kind of thing.

"The lady at Central told me that Edward Elric was out conducting Research," I said slowly, hoping that Roy would still answer after my little outburst. "Where is he?"

"That's restricted information," Roy told me stiffly. Either he really couldn't tell me, or he didn't want to after everything I had just said. I had to get out and go somewhere, though, whether he would tell me or not. I couldn't just sit around in Resembool waiting for Ed and Al to show up.

"Well, thank you, Colonel," I sighed. "I think you've told me everything I wanted to know."

"Not so fast!" Roy said quickly. "A question for a question! Tell me how you know all this!"

"That's restricted information," I replied with a smirk before hanging up quickly.

**Kay, time for a few notes on this. So, I based Rebecca a LOT off me (and those of you who actually know me will know just how much) but I have changed all the names in here except for Sabrina's, since she says hers right on her profile. So while Rebecca isn't my real name, it does have some connection to me. If I had been born a boy, my name would have been Paul Isaac, (which is also why I gave one of my brothers the name of Paul in this) and Rebecca was the wife of Isaac in the bible, so I named myself Rebecca. **

**And Triumia isn't real either. I seriously just made that name up from the word 'triumphant.' So you probably won't find any cities by that name if you look, and if you do, then I will be **_**very **_**surprised. **

**I am sorry for committing the ultimate sin by putting myself into the FMA world, but there will not be any outrageous romance or that sort of thing. (if anything there'll be Royxriza hinting, but I doubt I'll even do that) and I also won't become a huge hero five minutes in either. To put it simply, I'm going to stick to the characters of FMA and my life as well as possible. Part of me writing this was because I was thinking 'What would **_**really **_**happen if some fangirl dropped into Ed's world?' 'Cuz I think we all know that Ed probably wouldn't fall in love with her on sight. (sorry, but it's true) **

**So tell me what choo all thought of this. It might take me a while to update this, since I'm trying to make the chapters nice and hunky, (14 pages in Word! That's a record for me!) but I will do my best if people like it. **


	2. Chapter 2

_**I have decided that there will most likely be spoilers for both the anime and manga at some points. Ye be warned. X3**_

_**Chapter Two – Concerning Red Leather, Spaghetti, and a 'Sleepover'**_

After hanging up on Roy so abruptly, I went back to the room I had been in earlier and quickly pulled on my shoes. Now, realize that when I call them 'shoes,' I might be using the term a little loosely, because when I say 'shoes,' I really mean, 'my-size nine-men's-work-boots-that-could-probably-kill-someone-if-you-chucked-them.' The original brown shoelaces I had first gotten with them had ended up fraying to the pint of no return, so I had ended up replacing them with extremely long purple shoelaces that I thought stuck out almost as much as Ed's red coat. At least my favorite color was purple.

I then pulled my notebook and a pencil out of my bag, which I used to scribble out a hasty note explaining to Winry that I was only going for a short bike ride and that I'd be back later. I didn't know whether or not she'd actually worry about me being gone, but I had learned with my mother than it was most always better to be safe than sorry. I made sure the note was left in plain sight on the table, and then ran outside and grabbed my bike.

As soon as the wind started whipping through my hair, I was instantly in a better mood. Fresh air always seems to affect me like that. Normally I would have had my Walkman to listen to, but since it didn't work, I started to sing instead.

"It was an itsy-bitsy, teeny-weeny, yellow, polka-dot bikini

That she wore for the first time today!

An itsy-bitsy, teeny-weeny, yellow, polka-dot bikini

So in the locker, she wanted to stay!"

I knew my voice wasn't exactly qualified for the opera or anything like that, but at least I didn't have any dogs howling along with me, and no one was around anyway. If there had been people on the streets, I knew that I probably wouldn't have been singing quite so loudly. I might have hummed the tune under my breath, but I wouldn't ever give a concert from the seat of my bike. Actually, I wouldn't give a solo concert anywhere. If I was in a choir with plenty of other kids I could sing for a crowd, but on my own, fat chance.

"2, 3, 4, stick around, we'll tell you more!

Bop bop bop bop ba-dop bop bop bop bop

She's afraid to come out in the open

Do do do!

So a blanket around her, she wore!

Do do do!

She's afraid to come out in the open

Do do do!

So she sat bundled up on the shore!"

I had never realized before while watching the anime or reading the manga that Resembool was such a pretty town. I had quickly discovered that the reason it was colder here than in Triumia was because it was fall here instead of summer. All around me were golden and orange trees, and the breeze was nice and crisp. I supposed that it was right for the season to differ between Amestris and America. After all, it had happened in a few of the fanfics I had read.

"2, 3, 4, tell the people what she wore!

Chh-chh-ch-ch

It was an itsy-bitsy, teeny-weeny, yellow, polka-dot bikini

That she wore for the first time today!

An itsy-bitsy, teeny-weeny, yellow, polka-dot bikini

So in the blanket, she wanted to stay!"

Wait, if it was fall, did that mean I was going to have my birthday soon? I knew that back in my world my birthday was in fall, but could I just transfer it over here? That almost didn't seem fair. As if I was cheating just so I could have my birthday earlier than normal.

"2, 3, 4 stick around, we'll tell you more!

Bop bop bop bop ba-dop bop bop bop bop

She's afraid to… to…"

I stumbled over the words momentarily. With my mind on other things, it was a little difficult to focus on the song. I paused and let myself be quiet for a moment in thought, but the song kept tugging at the back of my mind, begging to be finished.

"She's afraid to come out of the water

Do do do!

And I wonder what she's gonna do!

Do do do!

She's afraid to come of the water

Do do do!

And the poor little girl's turning blue!"

A birthday party in the FMA world would be so cool. I started thinking about how the characters would throw a party, my thoughts getting more and more insane until I was eventually thinking about Ed trying to whack at a Piñata. I chuckled slightly to myself. I had to tell that one to Paul and Michael when I got home. They would probably-

"2, 3, 4, tell the people what she wore!

Chh-chh-ch-ch

It was an itsy-bitsy, teeny-weeny, yellow, polka-dot bikini

That she wore for the first time today!

An itsy-bitsy, teeny-weeny, yellow, polka-dot bikini

So in the water, she wanted to stay!"

I had forgotten that Paul and Michael weren't here. None of my family was waiting for me in a nice house somewhere, and my friends weren't even there to laugh with me at the whole mess I had gotten myself into. I was alone. Maybe even more alone than Ed and Al themselves. The thought scared me. I started pedaling faster, realizing that I had no clue where I was going. I wanted – no, _needed_ – someone from my world. Even the brothers that I had called annoying so many times.

"From the locker to the blanket!

Chh-ch-ch-ch

From the blanket to the shore!

Chh-ch-ch-ch

From the shore to the water!

Chh-ch-ch-ch

Yes, there isn't anymore!

Do!"

What if I never saw them again? What if they thought I was missing and had an Amber alert? Or worse, what if they thought I was dead? What was the last thing I had said to them? I desperately tried to remember, hoping that it wasn't like in movies where the person had always said something horrible. But what had I said? What was the last thing I'd told my family before leaving?

_I glanced hastily in my mirror, and noticing that my hair was a little frizzy, I quickly grabbed my brush. After that, I grabbed my bag and turned to walk out of my room. I wished I could have gotten rid of my pimples along with my frizzy hair, but I knew that since I was a real teenager, I would have to deal with acne, unlike all the characters in FMA, who never seemed to get a single pimple among all of them. _

"_Okay, I'm going to go now!" I called out to the few members of the household. My dad was at work, but my mom poked her head out of the kitchen. I knew she was probably working on dinner for my brothers. _

"_You sure you don't want me to drive you?" she asked, and I vigorously nodded my head. It would be much cooler on a bike with wind whipping at me than in a car that had been sitting in the summer heat for hours. "Well, have fun, sweetie," my mom said, and I smiled. _

"_Bye, boys!" I called out to my brothers, putting one step on the stairs that led to the door. Neither of them moved from their spots on the couch. It looked like they were watching Cyberchase. "Fine, don't give your sister a hug before she leaves!" I called out with a fake sigh and a smile hinting at my lips. It seemed to get my brothers' attention, and they both leaped up and ran over. _

_Michael got to me first, since he had the longer legs of the two. He wrapped both his arms around me in a tight hug, and I rubbed his hair affectionately. Rubbing hair was the way to let Michael know you loved him. I don't know why, because if you gave him a head massage, he knew you loved him, but if you gave him a kiss, he didn't seem to know. In fact, he always freaked out when anyone other than mom kissed him. _

_I let go of Michael, only to be grabbed in a tight hug by Paul. I smiled and lifted him up so that his head was even with my shoulder, grunting as I did so. Paul certainly wasn't as light as he used to be, so I had to put him down quickly. I then bent down and kissed him on top of the head before he let go. _

"_Yuck!" Paul said as he pulled away from me, but a smile was on his lips, so I guessed that he was only saying it so that he wouldn't look wimpy compared to Michael._

"_Okay, I'll see you guys later," I sighed, starting down the stairs in front of the front door. _

"_Have fun!" I could hear my mom call out when I was about a fourth of the way down. _

"_I will!" _

"_Bye, Rebecca!" Paul called out cheerfully. I was glad that for once he didn't seem too angry about me going off and having fun with my friends without bring him along. He usually got angry that most boys his age didn't want to throw sleepover all the time like my friends, so any event with my friends could be turned into a big hassle with Paul. Half the time he wanted me to ask my friends if he could come over with me, which my mom always put a stop to. _

"_Yeah, bye!" Michael called out, not wanting to have Paul outdo him. I was about three fourths of the way down the stairs. This happened every time I left. The trick was to not look back unless I could feel the doorknob in my hand. _

"_Bye!"_

"_We love you!" My mom called, knowing that I was almost at the door. _

"_Love you too!" I called back as I grabbed the doorknob in my right hand. I took the moment to look back quickly before I opened the door. Michael and Paul were both standing at the top of the stairs grinning down at me. They almost looked like twins with their matching blond hair and hazel eyes. I waved quickly at them with my left hand and ducked out the door. _

'Love you too.' The last thing I had told my family was I that I loved them. I felt myself sigh in relief, even though I hadn't been holding my breath. The crisp breeze started to feel good again, and the tress regained their colors. I finally focused on the world again, and only then did I realize where I had ended up.

A large tree with blackened braches at the top instead of leaves was on my left, and large pile of blackened rubble stood in front of me. Without even realizing where I was going, I had ended up at the Elrics' house. I slowly climbed off my bike and leaned it on its kickstand, and then walked up to look closer at the house.

Even though I knew it had been burned down years ago, I could still catch a faint smell of smoke around the charred rubble. I thought that maybe I was imagining the smell, but I couldn't be sure. I reached down and grabbed a handful of ashes, and then opened my fingers to let them fall down again in a small ashy waterfall. I slowly started to pick my way through the debris, being careful not to disturb anything too much. I half-wished I could find something among the debris that would show me a small glimpse of Ed and Al's childhood.

As I slowly picked my way through, a small scrap of red caught the corner of my eye. I reached down a picked it up, carefully dusting of the ash that had been coating it for years.

It was a small piece of dark red leather that had burn marks all over it. I didn't know how it had survived the fire when fire had obviously gotten very close to it. I slowly turned it between my fingers, and then noticed that there was old writing on the other side of the leather. I held it closer to the light and peered at it intently until I finally managed to make out the word 'Alchemy.'

I grinned and wrapped my fingers tightly around the scrap as I wondered which alchemy book it had come from. It had obviously been a fancy one if it had been wrapped in red leather. I went to put it in my right pocket for safekeeping, and my fingers brushed against something else sitting in the bottom of the pocket. I slowly pulled it out and held it up to the light. I had completely forgotten that I had anything in my pocket.

It was what I liked to call 'my ring of junk.' It basically had all my little bits of junk that were important things I usually needed to remember when going out someplace. It had the key to my bike lock, my Borders Rewards card, two small keys that would open the cheap locks on suitcases, a small clock that had broken a couple of years ago, a small light that flashed red and green if you twisted the top, and my flash drive, which contained all my recent chapters of my fanfics, bits of my original stories and references I might need if I sat down to write.

All this stuff I had thought was important was now pretty much useless in this world. I didn't have the lock for my bike, so the key didn't do me any good, there were no Borders to have rewards at, I wasn't sure that the cheap locks on suitcases were the same here as they had been in my world, the clock was broken, the light didn't work when I twisted it because Amestris hadn't invented light bulbs that advanced yet, and there were no computers to plug flash drives into. I sighed and tucked the key ring back into my pocket. When – if – I got home, it would be useful again, and I would feel sorry if I had just thrown it away.

I looked slowly around me. Blackened boards were sticking up into the air haphazardly, and I could hear glass crunching beneath my boots. I was extremely glad that I had decided to wear my work boots on the day I had disappeared rather than my tiny white flip-flops. My mom had helped me to specifically pick out these boots so that my feet would be protected from almost anything lying on the ground.

My eyes caught a spot of empty grass behind the house. If I really was in the manga world, then Pinko would have buried the result of the Elrics' transmutation behind the house, but if I was in the anime world, she would have gone on to become Sloth. If I really wanted to find out which world I was in, all I needed was a bit of work and a shovel.

No. That would be rude. Not to mention that I have no mind for blood and gore and would probably have problems searching through the dirt for a pile of bones. I sighed and carefully picked my way back through the ashes, using one of the boards sticking up as a support. I then got on my bike and rode away with only one backward glance.

Frankly, the thought of having less of a home than the Elric brothers scared me more than anything else had managed to scare me throughout my entire life. It scared me even more than finals at school.

* * *

When I finally got back to the Rockbell house, the sun was just starting to set. I wasn't used to the slightly shorter days of fall yet, and the sun had started going down much sooner than I would have expected, so I was glad that I had decided to go back to the Rockbells' long before it had started turning dark. I had plenty of trouble managing to get back to the house, but I eventually made it just before the sun disappeared completely and made it impossible for me to find my way.

I took my bike around to the back of the house and carefully leaned it up against the side of the building. I could feel a slight itch on my arm as I walked around to the front door and looked down, only to see that I had a mosquito bite near my elbow.

I sighed as I walled in and kicked off my boots. I tried hard not to scratch the bothersome itch, because I knew that if I gave in and scratched it then it would only get worse.

A nice smell was wafting through the rooms of the house as I looked at the bulletin board filled with pictures of Ed, Al and Winry through the years. It smelled like someone was cooking spaghetti for dinner. I couldn't wait. I loved spaghetti, and my stomach was aching for food, since I had so rudely ignored it for lunch.

I slowly started to realize that my brothers even looked a little like Ed and Al. Sure, their faces were different shapes since they had different DNA, but their facial expressions and the way they held themselves were surprisingly similar. How many times had I seen that scowl crossing Ed's face go across Michael's lips when he was angry? And too many times I had seen Paul look exactly like Al in one of the pictures, who looked about ready to fall asleep on the spot. And the two smiles caught in too many of the pictures reminded me all too well of the day I had left, my brothers standing at the top of the stairs and smiling down at me.

I realized while I was looking at the photos that I was actually very lucky, even if I didn't feel like it most of the time. Both my parents were still alive and happily married, I had a group of good friends that would probably never betray me, I had reasonably good health and grades, and two amazing little brothers that loved me and looked up to me, even if they didn't show it half the time. And of course, on top of that, I was in the one place that every FMA fangirl wished she could be.

"Where have you been?" a sharp voice demanded of me suddenly. I turned from looking at the photos to see who was talking to me, and found myself looking at Pinako. I had never realized that the woman was so short. It was like I was looking at a hobbit instead of a normal person. And of course there was her ridiculous hairstyle, sticking up from her head at what looked like a ninety-degree angle, but maybe it was an eighty-degree angle.

"I was just out biking!" I explained to the woman hastily, noting her stern expression. "I wasn't planning on _leaving_ or anything!"

"Well, then you better explain that to the girl in the kitchen," Pinako replied, making me look towards the direction of the kitchen. "Winry's been worrying about ever since she got back and found you weren't here."

"She should have worried so much about me, I was just out biking," I sighed. I was about to add that I had even left a note, but Pinako interrupted before I had a chance to continue.

"She rescued you in the middle of a thunderstorm, Rebecca. Winry has a special connection with you that I don't think you understand, and you'd be wise to do your best not to foul it up," she told me sternly. I found myself looking down at my shoes in both shame and embarrassment. I hated it when people pointed out how much of an idiot and a jerk I could be at times.

I wanted to ask what she thought of me, but the words got stuck in my throat and wouldn't seem to come out. I knew that this might be my only chance to see how the people of this world viewed me, but I still couldn't manage to form the words. Luckily, Pinako answered the question even without me asking.

"Now I'll admit, there are some things about you that are a little out of the ordinary," she told me. I could feel myself swallowing thickly. I was 'out of the ordinary?' If Pinako thought that about me, then what would Ed think? I was doomed. "But I like you," Pinako announced suddenly, making me look up.

"Y- You do?" I stammered, caught off guard by the sudden proclamation.

"Yes, I do. Winry seems to like you a good amount, and I know that girl wouldn't make friends with someone who has a bad soul," Pinako explained to me. "You appear to be a nice person, and your heart certainly seems to be in the right place. And sometimes people with good hearts and strong minds have strange pasts. Look at those crazy Elrics," she laughed.

I smiled weakly, but the meaning of her words started to slowly sink in. Had she just compared me to Ed and Al? I knew I wasn't a bad person, but there was no way I could be similar to those two. There was no way I could have ever gone through what they had gone through without throwing a fit or losing my mind. After all, part of the reason I liked FMA so much was because I admired those boys for going through that and staying so strong. There was no possible way I could be at all similar to those two.

"Now go in and show Winry that you're still in one piece," Pinako told me, motioning for me to go into the kitchen. "She's been worried sick." I smiled and nodded, walking slowly into the kitchen.

The smell of spaghetti got much stronger when I walked into the kitchen, making me realize just how hungry I really was. Winry was standing in front of the stove she had made, stirring a wooden spoon in a large pot. I thought to myself about how I had just gotten another clue that I was in the anime, since I couldn't ever remember Winry's electric stove being mentioned in the manga.

Of course, that didn't mean that it couldn't still exist anyway. I needed some definite proof of which storyline I was in, like who killed Winry's parents. But I also knew that I couldn't just ask Winry about something like that.

"Hey Winry," I said slowly, my socked feet sliding a little on the tiled floor. "Is that spaghetti?" Winry snapped her head up to look at me, and after a large smile crossed her face, she quickly put the spoon down and rushed over to give me a big hug.

I was a little surprised by the contact and not really sure how to react, but fortunately for me, Winry backed away before I even had a chance to respond. She looked at me with a grin as she wiped her hands on her workpants. I didn't know why she really bothered with this action, consider that her hands were just as clean after she had wiped them as before.

"Where did you go?" she asked quickly. I found myself looking straight into her eyes, even if I didn't want to. They were both piercing and soothing at the same time, surprisingly enough. I realized almost immediately that neither the anime nor the manga had done her eyes justice. I don't even know if I can do her eyes justice by describing them.

They were the clearest, deepest blue I had ever seen in a person. It was almost like someone had taken the most vivid blue crayon they could ever find in a crayon box, and then rubbed that as hard as they could to get Winry's eye color. They stood out so much, and yet I realized that I hadn't really noticed her eyes before then.

"Where did you go?" Winry repeated, yanking me back to the present. Her hands were now resting on her hips, the wooden spoon she had been using to stir earlier still clutched in her hand.

"Just out for a bike ride," I said slowly, knowing that if I said something to tick her off, I could very well end up with a wrench making contact with my skull. I was hoping to delay that, if not make it so that I never had it happen to me. "I did leave a note, you know."

"I didn't see any note," Winry said with a hint of anger in her voice as her blue eyes narrowed slightly. I quickly hurried over to the table and looked at its surface.

It reminded me a little of our table at home, since it wasn't exactly bare, but our table had much more stuff on it most of the time. I had started to forget what kind of wood our table was before I had suddenly left; now it had completely slipped from my mind. I quickly moved a few items and quickly found the item beneath Den's leash.

"Here it is," I said to Winry quickly as I held out the note for her to see. "You didn't notice it because you put Den's collar on top of it." Winry's eyes scanned quickly over the note, and then she looked up at me. I knew I was probably beaming, since I had actually managed to find a lost item by myself, for once.

"Okay," Winry said quickly, but not apologizing for overreacting or even congratulating me for finding the note. I felt my shoulders sag a little, even though I knew that was the way Winry was sometimes. "Now wash up and take those gloves and the hat off. Dinner should be ready in about fifteen minutes."

My mind instantly brought up an image of the Disney version of Snow White telling the seven dwarves to go wash their hands, "Or not a bite to eat!" I sighed and walked out of the kitchen, probably looking a bit like Grumpy myself as Winry turned back to her bubbling pot of spaghetti sauce.

The spaghetti ended up being delicious. Sure, there were a few more chunks of vegetables in there than I would have liked, but those could easily be removed, and the rest of the spaghetti was pretty good, especially when I started considering that this wasn't my mother's spaghetti, and therefore I was probably a little biased.

Winry had laughed when she had seen my little mountain of vegetables on the side of my plate. She mentioned how Ed always did that whenever she cooked spaghetti for him. I had almost considering sticking all the vegetables back in after she said that, but then I saw the tomatoes sitting nestled in with the other vegetables, and immediately changed my mind. No matter how much I wanted to provide evidence I wasn't like Ed, I still wasn't going to eat tomatoes. So I took a long sip from my glass of milk to prove Winry wrong instead.

"Do you want to play a game?" Winry asked me as I helped her clean the dishes later. I starting to sorely miss our dishwasher, even if was old, demented and broken. It was certainly better than the way the Rockbells cleaned dishes – with good ol' elbow grease.

"What kind of game?" I asked curiously. The only games I had heard of in FMA were poker and sparring, but I supposed that was just because the manga and anime mostly focused on the Elric brothers, who didn't have much time for simple things like games.

"Well, we've got a deck of cards somewhere," Winry said, pausing in her scrubbing to turn and look at me. "Or we could play Truth or Dare, or we could even listen to the radio…"

"Sounds like a sleepover to me," I grinned at Winry. "My friends have taught me some fun games over the years." I could remember all the different sleepovers I had been to, each with its own style and fun games.

* * *

"Truth or Dare?" Winry asked excitedly as she flopped down on the floor next to me. We had already played every other game we could think of and had been warned by Pinako to 'quiet down or else!'

"Umm… Truth," I decided after a moment. I always chose truth, without fail. I couldn't remember choosing dare even once. I sighed, thinking about how any truth about me wouldn't really be dangerous enough for me to opt for a dare instead.

"Hmm," Winry was thoughtful for a minute, putting her finger to her chin. "Okay, I got it. What's your middle name?"

"Marie," I answered simply with a laugh. "I've got to tell the truth to any question you ask and you ask for my middle name?" Winry nodded and then looked at me expectantly. "Truth or Dare?" I sighed, smiling back at her.

"Truth," Winry said quickly. "But only because Gran will kill me if we sneak out of this room to do a dare."

"Okay," I laughed and then started to quickly think of a question to ask. What could I possibly ask that I didn't already know about Winry? Well, there were actually plenty of questions I could ask, but none of them sprang to mind. "Okay…" I said slowly. "If you could be with any celebrity, who would you pick?" Winry paused, seeming momentarily stunned for a moment as a blush hinted at her cheeks.

"Well that guy in the movie I saw last month was kind of cute," she admitted sheepishly. "But I don't remember his name. But if it could be _any _celebrity then I'd choose James Peterson!"

"Who the heck is that?" I asked before I realized that he was a celebrity and I should probably know his name. But Winry didn't seem to notice as she sighed loudly and clasped her hands together. I had a feeling that if she would have sparkles in her eyes if was the 2-D drawing I had always known her to be.

"James Peterson!" Winry repeated excitedly. "Young automail genius and owner of Gods Studio!" she sighed happily as I sighed and clapped a hand to my forehead. "What?" Winry asked, looking over at me.

"I should've known," I sighed. "With you, it always comes down to automail somehow."

"Is that an insult?!" Winry screeched, hitting my head with a pillow. I shrieked and covered my head with both my hands before reaching for my own pillow. Meanwhile, however, my head was spinning. She had said Gods Studio, an automail company that I had only heard of in the manga version of FMA. This _had_ to be the manga version! Had had had to! I laughed gleefully and hit Winry on the head with my pillow, for which I received a hard blow to the side from her pillow.

We eventually stopped our pillow fight, mainly because we couldn't stop laughing and were both worried that Pinako could come down any minute and give us a lecture for being too raucous.

"Truth or Dare?" Winry asked with a bit of a giggle to her voice as she flopped down on the sofa. I flopped down next to her and realized that the sofa was begging to feel more comfortable than it had an hour ago. I almost wanted to close my eyes and lie down, but I wanted to keep fighting it at the same time.

"Truth," I answered immediately. Winry paused for a minute as she tried to think of a question, and I felt a yawn force its way past my lips. I didn't have a clue how long we had stayed up, but I knew it was late.

"Got it!" Winry clapped her hands together happily. I was surprised at her energy until I noticed that her eyelids were drooping a little. At least I wasn't the only one beginning to feel tired.

"If you could spend a week anywhere for free, where would you go?" Winry asked me. I grinned at the question. If I could pick any city in the FMA world to visit, I probably would have normally picked Resembool, but I was already there, staying at the Rockbell house, for pete's sake!"

"Central," I answered after running through a few of the cities in my head. "I've always liked big cities." Winry nodded her head and then looked at me expectantly.

"Truth or Dare?"

"Truth." I quickly tried to think of a question to ask, but I was losing energy quickly, and not able to think as well.

"What are you most afraid of?" I asked with a slight yawn. It was interesting learning this stuff about Winry, but I was losing steam quickly.

"Trains," Winry answered softly. "I'm scared of trains." I almost asked her why, but then the answer suddenly hit me like a ton of bricks. Of course she would hate trains; they were always taking the people she loved far away. Her parents had probably gotten on a train when they had gone off to the war, and trains kept taking Ed and Al away after just bringing them back. I smiled softly and gently patted her on the back. "Truth or Dare?' she asked quietly, looking up at me.

"Truth."

"Will you have to leave soon?" she asked suddenly. I was surprised by the question and quickly tried to think of an answer that wouldn't hurt her, but the look on my face seemed to be answer enough for Winry.

"I thought so," she said softly, looking down at her lap. "Promise you'll call me?"

"As long as you give me the phone number," I said with a small chuckle. "And I'll write letters too." Well, of course I would write letters. Writing was one of the more natural forms of expression for me, and since there wasn't e-mail in this world, I'd have to use good ol' snail mail.

"Thank you," Winry murmured, but I still felt awful. I knew what it felt like to have a friend leave, but what I couldn't understand was how we had managed to get so close in such a short amount of time. Maybe pressing circumstance really could make friends for life.

"It's late," Winry commented as she stood up and stretched out her arms. "We should go to bed." And with that, each of us trudged off to separate rooms for the night.

**Yeah, I know, this one took a bit longer to post and it's not as long as the first chap. I've had other stuff that also needed posting, so this would be my third post of the day! Whew. It feels good, but I'm exhausted. Unfortunately, school will be starting soon, which means that I'll have even less time to work on fanfics. I think it's about high time I made a schedule or something. Sigh. **


	3. Chapter 3

_**I'm reeeeeeally sorry this took foreeeeeeever!! Pleeeeeease don't throw things at meeeee!! Meep! **_

_**Chapter Three – Concerning Backpacks, Beef Jerky and a Journal**_

The train whistle blew loudly behind me, making jump and nearly turn completely. It seemed like this world was trying to remind me that this was not the home I was used to. I'd already had enough trouble trying to hide my surprise from the Rockbells when we arrived at the train station. I was used to the sleek metal design of trains in the twenty-first century, so seeing _working_ old fashioned steam engines was strange, to say the least.

"Here," Winry said with a slight sniffle as she held two packages out towards me. I took them from her, but instead of opening them immediately, reached over gave Winry a tight hug. Her breath quivered slightly before she reached up and hugged me back.

"I'll promise I'll write, okay?" I reassured her, and felt Winry nod against me. I felt a pang of guilt in the pit of my stomach that I would someday, somehow have to leave the world entirely and leave her wondering about what had happened to me. "And I'll call and I'll visit, too, okay?" I added quickly.

"Maybe the next time you come the idiot Elrics will be there for you to meet," Winry laughed slightly as she pulled away from me. I laughed with her wondering how I would ever meet Ed and Al. I wasn't going to leave their world until I at least got to see them. After all, it's not every day you suddenly wake up and find out you're in the Fullmetal Alchemist world.

"Open your presents," Winry told me, sniffling a little as she said it. I grinned at her and quickly started tearing the wrapping paper of the two packages. The first one was rather large and thick, and when I opened it, I found that it was a fancy stationary set with a flowing R on each of the pages.

"Oh, Winry, it's beautiful," I said as I gently ran my hand over the slightly red paper. Just feeling the new papers under my fingers made me itch to sit down and start writing. It really was a beautiful set, and the romantic side of me wanted to sit at a desk and write on those papers in flowing cursive letters.

"Now you have no excuse for not writing to me," Winry grinned at me. "I even put some stamps in there so that you have everything you need. I gave Ed one of those sets too, but he never really writes to me, so you better write twice as much to make up for him."

"Yes, ma'am," I grinned back at her, knowing that writing would probably be no problem for me unless I was busy, which would end up giving me even more to write about. I then turned to the second package and began to tear the paper off it.

I grinned as a framed picture of me and Winry, arms wrapped around each other's shoulders fell into my hands. I could remember Pinako taking the picture sometime early in our 'sleepover,' but I had no clue that Winry had framed it.

"Thanks, Winry," I smiled and wrapped her in another hug. The picture frame certainly didn't look like it had been cheap, in fact, I wasn't used to getting such fancy looking presents when it wasn't even my birthday.

The train whistle blew sharply again, jerking me and Winry apart. I turned to the train slightly, not wanting to leave Winry, but at the same time anxious to start my journey. My bike had already been put in the cargo section of the train, while I kept my backpack with me.

"Go on, get out of here," Winry said, hiding her sniffles much more effectively than before. She playfully whacked my arm, lightly, but still hard enough for me to protest. "You got family waiting for you in Ellsworth, you better not keep them waiting."

I winced at the name of the city my train would be taking me to. When Winry and Pinako had offered to buy me a train ticket back home, I couldn't refuse without looking suspicious, so I had just looked at the map and chosen a random nearby town. Any farther and they would have wondered how I rode my bike to Resembool, any closer and a train ticket would have been completely pointless. Sensibility won out and I decided to get to get as close to Central as I could, knowing that I would eventually end up going there. I was, after all, the fangirl in Ed's world. I had read enough fanfics to know they always ended up at military headquarters, somehow.

"Bye," I said softly to Winry. The blond mechanic just nodded somberly to me, obviously trying her best to not cry. I gave her a sympathetic smile, turned and walked onto the train.

I quickly walked down the isle of the train car, found an empty seat and slung my bag onto it. I then quickly opened the window and leaned out of it, waving to Winry and Pinako. Pinako just kept her hands stuffed in her pockets as she looked me over through her glasses, while Winry waved back enthusiastically.

"Come visit soon!" she cried out just before the train let out an ear-splitting shriek and started chugging forward steadily. I jerked slightly with the movement, but continued waving to Winry.

"I will!" I promised. Besides, it wasn't like I had too many important things to do in this world. I wasn't an actual citizen, so I didn't have to go to school, and I didn't have any real family, so I had no home to tie me down. "Bye Winry!" I cried out just as my window reached the end of the station. Winry had run down to the end of the station, easily keeping up with the slow-moving train, but then it began to pick up speed and she stopped, waving to me from the edge of the platform.

I waved until Winry was only a speck in the distance, then pulled myself back inside the train and sighed. I reached for my backpack, but suddenly found that it was missing. I gasped, and saw two boys further down the car pulling it open and snickering. I quickly marched over to them and put both my hands on my hips, suddenly very angry.

"Give it back," I said as firmly as I could muster and trying to give both the boys death glares.

"Give what back?" one boy smirked at me while his friends continued to dig deeper into my bag. One boy pulled out my red Pirates of the Caribbean hat and looked at it curiously.

"Pirates for life?" he said, reading the words on the hat. He then looked at me in mock surprise. "Whoa! You're a pirate? No way!"

"Give me my backpack!" I said, my voice rising to a desperate plea. I knew the boys seemed to catch onto this and turned back to each other, making no attempt to hide their laughter from me.

"Give me my backpack!" one of the boys repeated with a sneer, his voice high and whiny. I nearly wanted to burst into tears, but I held them back and tried to stare angrily at the boys.

"I mean it!" I said, feeling my anger boil but my voice quaver. "Give it back now!"

"And what're you going to do if we don't give it to you?" the ringleader asked, clearing enjoying playing me like a cat would with a mouse. "You gonna hit us? Ooo, I'm so scared!" He turned back to his friends, who immediately starting laughing like the bunch of brainwashed idiots they were.

"I suggest you give the lady her backpack," a cool voice said behind me. I turned around and nearly fainted at the sight of Envy standing right behind me, crossing his arms and looking at the boys coldly.

"Oo, I'm so scared of two girls that probably never learned how to throw a proper punch in their lives," the ringleader taunted, and I saw Envy's grip tighten before he flew forward and started punching the boy in the face.

"I am not a damn girl!" Envy screeched, punching the boy in the face with each word. When he finally pulled away, the boy was unconscious and covered in blood, the other boys looked warily at Envy and quickly handed me my backpack.

"I everything in there?" Envy asked, not taking his eyes off the three still conscious boys. I carefully rifled through the bag and took a quick inventory.

"My hat's missing," I said softly after tallying up all the different items in my head. Envy glared at the boys, and one quickly tossed the hat to me, his eyes wide. Envy caught it right before it hit me in the head, and then handed it to me gently.

"That everything?" he asked, his purple eyes glinting in the light of the train. I nodded meekly as I clutched my backpack to my chest, sure that my eyes were a big as dinner plates. Envy nodded briskly, scowled at the boys, then grabbed my wrist and dragged me to a different car.

I noticed as he dragged me behind him how unnaturally cold his skin was. Thinking about it, I realized that it made sense, since homunculi weren't really human and seemed to only be living because of the Philosopher's Stone, but I hadn't really ever thought deeply about what Envy would feel like. In fact, most of the time I spent watching Fullmetal Alchemist I had disliked Envy, and here he was saving me from a pack of bullies.

Now where was the Equivalent Exchange in that?

"They shouldn't bother you here," Envy told me as he roughly shoved me into a seat. I guessed that he didn't seem to realize how rough it really was; after all, he was a homunculus, and a male one at that. Besides, he had just done one of the few compassionate things I had ever seen Envy do, fanfiction included. I had never thought that he could be… well, nice.

But as nice as he was, there was still something about him that unnerved me. I knew that he wasn't natural, and I had a feeling that I still wouldn't have felt completely comfortable around him even if I didn't know what he really was.

"Now, don't let them bother you, okay?" Envy snapped at me, and I weakly nodded. "And don't leave your stuff unguarded like that. You have any idea how stupid that was?" I nodded meekly again, slightly pulling my backpack up to cover the lower half of my face. Envy was reminding me way too much of the few mean dogs I had met throughout my life. Especially the way they barked and made me want to run away as fast as I could. His teeth were just way too sharp for an ordinary person. Envy nodded briskly at me, then turned and walked back into the other car, his long dark hair swishing sharply behind him.

I sighed and immediately slumped deep into the seat, breathing shakily. After nearly crying and then having Envy lecture me, I was feeling a bit out of sorts, to say the least. I then yanked open my backpack and pulled out _Two Princesses of Bamarre_, for lack of something better to do. I leaned my head against the cool glass of the window and tried to calm myself by reading the familiar words. I found myself wishing that the train were going to a town I actually knew rather than one I had picked off a map randomly.

The train suddenly screeched to a halt, making me and the other passengers look around in surprise. I quickly snapped my book shut and shoved it back into my backpack, worried that hijackers might have decided to take the train, just like in the first manga of FMA.

"I'm very sorry folks, but it seems that there's some trouble with the tracks up ahead," a voice over the intercom crackled. "We regret to inform you that this train will have to be detour to Dublith instead of going to Ellsworth like planned." The passengers around me groaned as the train started again.

Dublith, Dublith… I dug through my brain, trying to remember the connection to the strangely familiar name. I _knew_ Dublith, I _knew _it, but I just couldn't put my finger on it. Ed and Al had traveled to so many different towns; it was hard to keep up at times.

Wait! I stopped thinking and nearly smacked myself on the head. Dublith, Curtis! That was where Izumi and Sig Curtis lived! Dublith was the home of Ed and Al's alchemy teacher! I nearly jumped at the thought before I realized the seriousness of it.

This was Izumi after all, the lady that could make even the brave Fullmetal Alchemist quiver in fear. And I had a feeling that since I was the fangirl magically dropped into the FMA world, I wouldn't be able to just sneak through the town without her noticing me. Oh no.

"Oh, we got trouble. Right here in Rivercity," I hummed under my breath as I stared out the window at the streaks of green rushing past. "With a capital T, and that rhymes with B, and that stands for blood." I sighed, hugged my backpack to my chest and rested my chin in the palm of my hand. Somehow, being dropped in the FMA world wasn't quite what I had imagined it would be like.

Oh yeah, just a barrel of fun.

* * *

I woke up hours later, extremely grateful to find that my backpack was still gripped tightly in my arms. I quickly rifled through it and was pleased to find that all my things were still inside.

"Now arriving in Dublith," the voice on the intercom crackled suddenly, making me jump a good inch, at least. "Please present your tickets to the man at the booth for a full refund. Thank you, and we're very sorry, folks." I quickly slung my back pack over one shoulder and joined the crowd steaming off the train, mostly mumbling about how mad they were at the train company, not seeming to think about how it probably wasn't really the train company's fault. Having problems with the tracks so suddenly like that, it was probably a complete accident.

First I hurried down to the cargo section of the train and claimed my bike, stroking the seat fondly before running away. I then hurried up to the ticket booth, and after a few minutes in line I managed to exchange my ticket for cold, hard cash. The paper felt good beneath my fingers, and I grinned at it as I rushed off.

I wandered aimlessly down the streets of Dublith, practically able to physically feel the money burning a hole in my pocket. And, predictably, after a few minutes I stumbled on the Curtis meat shop. I sighed to myself, and deciding not to delay the inevitable, walked inside after leaning my bike against on its side against the wall of the shop.

"Um… Hi," I said as I nervously eyed the man behind the counter of the shop. Sig didn't change his expression at all and continued to stare stonily ahead, a bloody cleaver clutched in one hand.

"Ham. 100 grams. 128 sens," Sig grunted.

"Um, that's… nice?" I said, smiling nervously at the large man. I tried shaking the thought of a large teddy bear out of my head, but it wouldn't leave. All right, a large _gruff_ teddy bear, but a teddy bear, all the same.

"Chicken breast. 160 sens," Sig added.

"Cool," I smiled. I knew how this conversation went already, and I was pretty sure I didn't have muscles like Armstrong to compare with Sig. And even if I did have muslces, I wasn't going to tear my shirt off in front of a man, much less a _married_ man.

"Cow shoulder chop, 200 sens."

"Really? How interesting," I sighed, trying to sound like I was interested. Sig cocked his head to one side and regarded me curiously.

"Minced pork and beef, 98 sens," Sig told me. I nearly banged my head on the table in frustration. It was like he was a prerecorded tape that just wouldn't stop. I suddenly looked up as I heard someone walk into the room. If it was physically possible to sweatdrop, I would have at the sight of Izumi.

There was just something about her that instantly commanded the attention of a room. She held herself tall and straight, making her look much taller than everybody else. Her clothes were neat and pressed, making me rub slightly at my wrinkled shirt in an attempt to look more presentable. I suddenly remembered back to when I had read the Mary Poppins book, and realized that Izumi reminded me strongly of the nanny. She was firm and strict like Mary Poppins most of the time, but there was also that soft side of her that would come out now and again.

"Well, who's this?" Izumi said as she looked me over. I felt myself shrink under her gaze, feeling as if I was specimen under a microscope. "Did your mom send you to buy meat?"

"Um… no," I said nervously, and then suddenly realized that I might as well buy meat. I did have a little money and if I was going to be on my own, I would have to have some food. "I'm actually buying for myself," I told Izumi, who cocked an eyebrow and regared me curiously. "Um… do you have any meat that doesn't need to be cooked… and doesn't need to be kept cold?"

"Beef jerky?" Izumi suggested, looking at me curiously.

"Yeah, yeah, beef jerkey!" I agreed, nodding my head enthustically. I loved beef jerky, but I hadn't had it for years. I quickly pulled the wad of money out of my pocket and sorted through the strange bills. Izumi reached under the table and pulled out a heap of beef jerkey and set it on the counter.

"How much do you want?" she asked looking up at me.

"Um, how much will this get?" I asked, holding out a bill. Izumi looked it over quickly and then smirked at me.

"About four strips." My stomach grumbled in protest, and I quickly pulled off about half of my cash supply.

"However much this gets," I told her, holding out the money. Izumi leaned over to look at the money, then turned back to the beef jerky.

"Leave it on top of the register," she told me as she pulled out strips of beef jerky. "I don't want to touch dirty money before I touch food." I nodded and carefully placed the money on top of the cash register, smiling nervously at Sig. Sig just grunted at me. I figured that was as good of a response as I could hope for. Izumi then held out a large white package towards me. I eargly took it from her with both hands, thinking of how I probably had enough beef jerky to last for _months_.

"Are you running away from home?" Izumi asked as I carefully slid the package of beef jerky into my backpack. I looked up at her quickly, and then suddenly realized how suspicious-looking a girl buying a pound of beef jerky probably was.

"No!" I said quickly. Izumi leaned on the counter and regared me curiously.

"Do you even have a home to run away from?"

"Er, I-" I felt blood rush to my cheeks and quickly turned away.

"You know, something about you seems familiar," Izumi commented, putting a finger thoughtfully to her chin. "We haven't ever met before, have we?" I looked up at her and quickly shook my head, thinking how impossible it was for us to have met before, since I came from _another world_. Of course, Izumi didn't know that.

"I didn't think so," Izumi said slowly as I stood up and slung my backpack over one shoulder. "I guess it's just because you just remind me of my own two boys."

_Her own two boys?_ I thought curiously. _But… Izumi doesn't have any kids… unless she means… no way!_ I sighed and nearly banged my head against the table. Why did everybody seem to think I was similar to the Elrics? I wasn't anything like them! Sure, I was honored that they thought I was, but I knew that I really wasn't. For starters, Ed and Al were actually brave. I was a wimp.

"Well, if you need a place to stay, we do have a few extra rooms," Izumi said, suddenly snapping me out of my Elric-Jacobson comparisons. "But- You would have to work for them. Have you ever heard of the law of Equivalent Exchange?"

"Yeah, a few times actually," I muttered. "Look, you really don't have to-"

"Say yes, we need the extra help," Izumi said, her lips quirking slightly into a smile. I grinned back and held out my hand. "Izumi Curtis," she said, grabbing my hand and shaking it firmly.

"Rebecca Jacobson," I replied, squeezing Izumi's hand back in an attempt to try and make her stop crushing mine. Izumi just squeezed even harder, making me want to fall to my knees, but I winced and tried my best to be polite. Izumi smiled at me and then let go of my hand. I quickly shook it back and forth a few times, feeling the blood pounding through my veins.

"You got spunk, Rebecca," Izumi said as she looked me over.

"Me?" I said weakly, noticing that my hand that the color of my hand could only compare to that of a ripe tomato. "Well, I try, but I'm sure that there's plenty of other people that have more spunk than me."

"You know what genius is, kid?" a new voice said, and I looked up to see Mason standing in the doorway. "One percent inspiration-"

"And ninety-nine percent perspiration," I finished weakly. I had heard the saying many times in my life. The first time it was cute, the second time it was a little cliché, and now it was just a bit on the annoying side.

"And _trying_ for spunk certainly falls into the perspiration category," Mason grinned in reply. I smiled back at him, encouraged by his easy-going attitude.

"Mason, show the young lady to her room," Izumi barked before turning back to me. "I want you to put your things away and come back down here in no later than five minutes, ready to work."

"Erm, yes, ma'am!" I said quickly. Mason grinned at me from his spot and beckoned for me to follow. I quickly hurried after him and into a hallway with white paint on the walls.

"Here we go," Mason said with a grin as he opened a plain wooden door. The room inside had a rather simple dresser and a bed with white sheets that had been neatly made. "Been awhile since we had any kids around here," Mason grinned as I walked in the room and turned in a circle to look at in more effectively. "It'll be kind of nice to have someone to liven things up around here."

"Well, I'll try, but all I want is a roof over my head and food in my stomach," I said with a slight smile. The room seemed nice. It was certainly more open than my own room, which was already small and then had all sorts of furniture crammed into it. If only I my CDs worked in this world, then I would already thinking about dancing in the room when nobody was looking.

"Oh, I'm sure that just wanting place to stay and food will liven things up enough," Mason laughed slightly. "We never run low on excitement her in the Curtis household – at least, when there're kids around. I'm sure you'll be fine," Mason added, noticing my worried look. "Izumi can just get a little… energetic at times. Especially when there are guests in the house."

"Joy," I muttered, knowing just what Mason meant by 'energetic.' I tried to toss my backpack onto the bed, but it missed by about an inch and fell onto the floor, spilling out its contents.

"Oh, fudgemuffin," I groaned, quickly dropping to my knees and gathering up my things. I just barely saw one of my strawberry lip smackers roll under the bed. "I'll be there in a second," I told Mason, who nodded and walked off. I then turned to the bed and crawled onto my hands and knees, then slid onto my stomach so that my cheek was pressed against the floor.

I saw a dark shape against the wall, so I quickly reached out a hand and grabbed it. I felt the familiar form of my lip smackers tube, and feeling a slight surge of pride, began to pull away from the bed. As I did so, a small crack of light reached under the bed and illuminated a small section of the wall.

_I, Edward Elric, _

"I said no later than five minutes!" I heard Izumi call out to me. "That means you have one minute left!" The rest of the words on the wall were covered in shadow, so even though I was burning to know what they said, I backed away from the wall, tucked the lip smackers into my pocket, and ran down to a waiting Izumi.

"Right on time," Izumi said as I raced to a stop in front of her. "Tell me, Rebecca, do you know how to scrub floors?"

"Um, yes," I said slowly. True, I did know how to _how _to scrub floors, but I didn't really enjoy it. I hated it when the water got dirty and then I would have to stick my hand back in it just to get my scrubbing brush wet. And then I would be worried that I was making the floors more dirty instead of clean, and…

"But I'm better at scrubbing stairs," I added quickly. Izumi regarded me curiously. At home we had a set of stairs right by the front door, so my mom always wanted them to look clean when guests arrived. Usually I got stuck doing that job.

"I'll keep that in mind," Izumi said. She started walking, and I quickly followed behind her. "But today my floors are not dirty enough to be scrubbed. Instead, I want you to alphabetize all my books." I gasped as we walked into a room filled with books.

Sure it was small compared to normal libraries, or even libraries of other people with more space and money, but it was still a personal library. I had never seen a room in someone's house that was completely filled with shelves upon shelves of books. Though I had always known I would want one whenever I got a house, if I could afford it.

"I want these alphabetized by the last name of the author," Izumi said, and I suddenly realized how huge of a task lay before me. "A starts here," she pointed to the left wall by the door, "wrapping around and ending in Z here," she pointed to the wall on the right side of the door. "Have fun." I sighed and then slowly started pulling books off shelves.

_A History of Alchemy, by Geraldine Aamt_

An A. That would go right at the beginning. This was going to take a while.

* * *

Hours later, I finally managed to trudge up to bed. I had only stopped once to eat diner, and I ended up eating that very quickly. It was eleven thirty at night, and I had finally, _finally_, managed to finish alphabetize the whole darn library.

When I walked into my room, I saw plain white nightgown folded carefully on the bed. I rejoiced silently at the comforting sight, quickly closing the door behind me so I could change and go to bed. First I quickly tore off my shirt and slipped on the nightgown. The nightgown was achingly soft, almost like an old t-shirt. I felt my eyes slid a little more closed, and quickly moved on to my pants.

I quickly pulled off the pants and was about to just throw them carelessly on the floor when I suddenly felt a lump in the pocket. I reached in and pulled out the strawberry lip smackers I had stowed there earlier. I suddenly remember the mysterious writing on the wall and dropped to my knees in an attempt to read it.

No matter how much I twisted and turned, I couldn't see more than the words "I, Edward Elric," what I had already read before. I sighed and pushed myself into a standing position. I knew a way to find out what the words said, and now that I was curious, I wasn't going to leave the forgotten message. I quickly wrapped my hands around one of the bedposts and started pulling. It took a bit more effort than my bed at home, but I managed to slowly inch the bed away from the wall.

Once it was far enough away for me to slide between it and the wall, I quickly slid in and started pushing against the bed. It slid more easily, and before I knew it the bed had slid far enough away for me to crouch down and look at the wall. I easily found the words on the wall and read them eagerly.

_I, Edward Elric, promise never to abandon Alphonse now that our mother is gone. _

"Aw," I said softly and held a hand to my chest. I guessed that Ed had probably made that small carving when he and Al had first come to the Curtis house, before they tried to bring their mom back. And, as far as I knew, Ed had stuck faithfully to that promise ever since, even sacrificing an arm to do so.

I smiled to myself and after searching for any more carvings in the wall, began pushing the bed back up against the wall. When it was back to its original position, I hurried over to the light switch, put my glasses on top of the dresser and then darkened the room. I slid the door open a crack to let in light from the hall, and then quickly climbed into the bed, rejoicing in the thick blankets and soft pillows.

I tried to fall asleep for a minute or two, trying multiple positions until I finally realized that there was a large lump in the center of the bed. As if Izumi had decided to test whether or not I was a princess by putting a pea under a hundred mattresses, only it was just one mattress, and the lump was a lot larger than a pea.

I finally sighed in resignation and climbed out of the warm bed to investigate. I quickly slid my hand under the mattress, and jerked in surprise when I felt my fingers brush against a thick, hardcover book. I curiously pulled it out and ran a hand across it. No wonder the bed was so uncomfortable.

I quickly walked back over to the light switch and flicked the lights back on. I found that the book was a fancy leather book with a green leather cover. I reached over to the dresser, pulled my glasses back on and curiously turned the green book over in my hands a few times before flipping it open.

_This book belongs to Edward Elric!_

"Geez, Ed, you've left your mark all over this room," I laughed to myself. I realized that I was really talking to myself, but I didn't care. Besides, I usually ended up talking to imaginary characters or myself late in the night anyway. I checked around the book for any warning to "Keep out!" but found none, so flipped open to the first page with a victorious smirk.

_April 14_

_Teacher gave both me and Al one of these things today. She said that it can be nice to get things off your chest by writing. Bleh. But Al is writing in his, so he's not going to play anytime soon, and at least Teacher doesn't try to do exercises with us when she thinks we're writing. So all I gotta do is keep writing until Al is done, and then we can both go play! Yahoo! Writing, writing, writing, writing, writing, writing, wri_

_April 15_

_Ick. It's raining outside today. Teacher said that since we couldn't do our usual exercises we could alphabetize her entire library! And the worst part was that Al and I could only reach the top shelves if we stood on each other's shoulders. And since Al was the younger one, he said that he couldn't hold me up as long as I could hold him up, so I had to hold him up practically very time! My shoulders really hurt now, and tomorrow we're going to have to go back to normal exercise. I'm going to tell Teacher I'm sick. Maybe she'll let me have a day off. _

_April 16_

_Teacher didn't believe me when I said I was sick. So I ended up doing the same exercises as Al. And Teacher ended up throwing me, just like every other time we practice. My shoulders really hurt._

I yawned suddenly, and knowing I wouldn't be able to read the entire book that night, flipped to the very last entry. I figured I could read the rest tomorrow, that is, if Izumi wasn't too hard on me. I noticed that the handwriting had improved greatly in the last entry compared to the first three I had read.

_September 21_

_Wow, I forgot that I left this old thing here when Al and I went back home. I suppose it was because it was stupid and didn't want to have anything else to do with it. It's kind of weird to go back and read stuff from when I was little. But I'm going to leave this here anyway. All my important stuff is in my travelogue, and I bet Teacher would get a kick out of this if she ever finds it. _

_Anyway, I'm sixteen years old now. Al and I came back here for some help from Teacher. I was worried that she was going to be really mad at us. She was mad, but I think she kind of understood, too. But I'm not complaining, it was definitely better than being thrown over a roof somewhere. _

_So far we haven't had any luck with the Philosopher's Stone. I'm hoping that we might get a lead soon, but I'm not feeling too optimistic about it, really. I'll never admit it to Al, but I'm beginning to lose hope. We've been at this for what feels like forever, and so far everything we've found has turned out to just one rumor after another. _

_But I'll keep going, even if I don't feel like I can do it. Because Al needs me to. After all, we're brothers. If we don't look out for each other, then who will? _

_Goodnight._

"Oh, Ed," I sighed, running my fingers over the page. I wished I could tell him that there would always be people rooting for him, whether he realized it or not. I wished I could just somehow show him that everything would be all right. After all, the movie had ended on a positive note. Or positive compared to what he was going through now, since I was still aching for more.

I kept the book open to the same page and walked over to my backpack. I looted around in it for a few minutes, and eventually found a pencil. I then sat down on the edge of the bed and carefully started writing, making sure to make my letters neat enough for someone else to read.

_Dear Ed,_

_Right now you don't know who I am, but I have a felling we will end up meeting someday. I can't put into words all the different thoughts inside of me, but I'm definitely going to try, okay?_

_First of all, you need to realize that people all around you care about you – yes, even love you – even with all the different mistakes you've made over the years. You are a good person, truly. I know that plenty of other people would have given up on the Philosopher's Stone long before you, even if it were for their brother's benefit. _

_Secondly, please know that everything will eventually work out. It may be hard at times, but you keep managing to make good choices even when pressed into a stressful solution. When you make good choice after good choice, even if you have had a few bad choices along the way, you'll usually end up with something good._

_Thirdly, just think about how lucky you already are. You're still alive and healthy, you have a younger brother who admires and looks up to you, you're smart, you have a job that lets you access important information and a boss that lets you have more free rein than he probably is supposed to, and you usually manage to have three square meals a day. Even in the rough patches of life, there are still good parts. Believe me, I know, even though my rough patches are probably much smoother than yours. _

_Just try to have some fun even if life has got you down, okay? _

_Good luck!_

I looked over the letter quickly, and after rereading over it twice, tore it out and stuffed it into my backpack. I knew that I was obviously tried and not thinking properly. It wasn't like Ed was going to listen to advice – and corny advice, at that – from a nobody of a girl like me. What the heck did I know about what he was going through? I knew I had never had parts of my life that could even begin to compare to what he was going through. I had been blessed with a reasonably good life, and I knew it.

I sighed, put Ed's journal and my glasses on top of the dresser and flicked the light switch off again before crawling back into bed. Somehow, the bed seemed so much more comfortable than it had before. I knew it was because I was just more tired, but I didn't really care about the explanations behind it, I just knew it felt good.

I sighed contentedly and rolled deeper into my pillow. I sniffed it a few times before I realized that it smelled like clothes that had been dried on a line outside rather than in a machine. My mom had always wanted to do that with our clothes, but she had never really gotten around to it. I could understand why she liked the thought so much. It saved energy, and the sheets smelled wonderful.

I wiggled my toes under the sheets, glad that I could actually feel the blanket rub against them. I started wondering for the millionth time what it would be like to be in Al's position. I knew that I would probably go crazy of I couldn't feel, taste or smell.

I then started thinking about what it would be like to have automail like Ed. You would be able to experience all five senses most of the time, except for that one little bit of you that was just machinery. I touched my fingernails together under the blanket. I couldn't feel them touch each other, but I knew they were touching. So far it was the closest I had ever come to understanding automail. Fingernails.

Eventually I managed to fall asleep, despite the strangeness of a different bed than the one I had slept in at the Rockbell's, and a different one before that, and despite all the different thoughts I had about the Fullmetal Alchemist world. It was like having a sleepover without a friend, and much, much more exciting and nerve-wracking at the same time.

Needless to say, I ended up waking up late the next morning, leading to Izumi making me do twenty-five jumping jacks as punishment.

_**AdventureAddict doesn't own Fullmetal Alchemist, especially considering that her name is certainly not Hiromu Arakawa. You didn't seriously think that, did you?**_

**Ergh. I hope I got Izumi right. I've never actually written her before. At all. So that was my first ever attempt at her. And Sig. And Mason. How'd I do? –sweatdrops- And I figured it was about time that Envy had a few good things in his favor. Usually when that happens it's right before he starts makingout with Ed or someone else. No, Envy won't end up with me either. I don't date tropical plants. End of story. **

**Okay, I decided to answer to reviews this way now. I've seen a couple authors do it, and this way I know I'm replying to all the reviews. If I already replied to you once before, just feel doubly loved, and if I didn't, I'm sorry, it was probably because I was busy and didn't know which ones I had and hadn't replied to. **

**Anybody who reviews will get some sort of reply from now on. Just think of this as your Equivalent Exchange for reading and reviewing! –winks- **

**Just control F the name you used, I don't actually expect any of you to read **_**all**_** this babbling. Heh. Thanks again for all the response to this, I really appreciate it:D**

Chapter One 

…**it's a secret!** Oh, thank so much! –blushes- Yeah, I actually have trouble with the whole description thing. I'm sitting there practically tearing my hair out and screaming "Action! Get into the plot already!!" So I'm glad to hear it actually worked pretty well.

**Erebos** Yeah, I don't really know where my fanfic falls either. I know I'm not a Sue, (though I do have an Aunt Sue, does that count?) but still… here I am, writing fanfic and putting myself in it… -sigh- As much as I hate to admit it, there must be some rabid fangirl deep inside me… -sigh- Thank you for reading and not going Jack the Ripper on me yet! –sweatdrops- Yeah, no pressure…

**Dancing Nightmare**Yay! Sugar! -throws sugar in air and attempts to catch it in her mouth-

Oh… oops… -sweatdrops- Yeah, I must have missed those. I changed the names for Paul and Michael a few times. Nathanael is Michael and Paul is Sean, in case I slip up in the future. But it's fixed now, thank you very much for pointing that out to me. Eh heh…

I love mangaverse too, since so many more things just seem to line up more properly. But I like the way homunculi are created in the anime, maybe partly because I don't know how they're created in the manga too well. And there's the whole "Sloth is Mom, but not really! Angst, angst, angst, angst…" Well, you'll see what I decide to do later! –winks-

**Agent000**Ah, thanks for reading yet another of my stories! Yeah, I remember in "My Body, Your Soul" that you said large chunks of it were based off your life, especially since the main character acts like Al. –snickers- There's been whole bunches of inspiration for this everywhere, really. In fact, a little while ago, Kairi thought she heard me call her "Brother" in the hall, while I was thinking that I heard her say "Stop calling me Brother!" But apparently neither of us said it… creepy.

Al's spirit is haunting me! Eep! –looks around suspiciously- Ghosts freak me out. But I don't mind writing about them, of course… :D

**Pizza Matrix**:D Thank you very much, I plan to keep it going, at least when I have the time to… -sigh-

**Graceful[Execution**Well, if you want to see what happens, you'll just have to read it, won't you? –grins- Thanks very much, I did try to make it more believable than _some_ random fangirl inserts out there. Though when someone just happens to fall into the FMA world, how believable can you get, really?

**CrazedNeko**Yes, she'll manage to get home. I'm not going to just leave my poor little brothers all alone with no big sister to annoy- er, I mean, look up to. I actually have a whole plan for this, now it's just a matter of typing it all out and making it decent. –sigh-

**Kairi Angel A.K.A. Sabrina ...** -sigh- You're not going to get arrested, Brother. First of all, how many people download stuff like FMA daily? Secondly, did I tell anyone your last name? No. You could be any Sabrina. So calm down, kay?

Why steal a crummy bike when you have enough money to go out and buy ten more that are twenty times better? –sigh- I needs to get a new set of wheels…

My walkman is reliable, at least! You know what happens when you drop an ipod nano? It breaks and you cannot fix it. My walkman, however, has been dropped at least fifteen times and still works great. –turns to walkman- She didn't mean it, baby, no…

Wait, they put poop in the river?! –falls over- Why wasn't I ever informed of this? I knew it was icky, but I didn't know they put _that_ in there… -sticks out tongue- iiiiicky…

DEATHNOTE!!!

**ZIM** Of course I'll keep it going! I'm posting, aren't I? Anyways, thanks very much. Makes me feel fuzzy inside…

**X-L09**Thank you!

**Suuki-Aldrea** Thanks! Here ya go!

**The Ultimate Showdown of Ul...** Ultimate Showdown of what?! What is it?! –bangs head on table- Thanks anyway. Rebecca's not in too much trouble, she still has Ed and Al to look forward to meeting… meh heh heh…

**Maira Luca** Aw... –blushes and turns away- Thanks so much. I hate just having a paragraph about the main character before Ed and Al magically show up. I mean, one of the main things with stories is developing a character, but you can't really develop them if there's nothing to develop, now can you?! They did have a life before Ed and Al showed up! There should definitely be a bond between the reader and the OC, maybe even more than the bond between the reader and the Elrics, if you do it right… Hmm… -smirks- if Rebecca and Ed were in a fistfight, who would you root for to win? Muahahahahaha… Thanks again!

**Jack-san:** Thank you, I'll try to post more regularly. –sweatdrops-

**tomato sauce** Oh, man, do I feel your pain! Part of the reason I'm writing this is because I would love to be able to read a story like this in the FMA section myself! But, man, some of the stuff out there just _suuuucks_! So, if the world don't provide, then make it yourself. –rolls up sleeves- Wait, you'll be stalking?! Meeep! –runs off and hides in corner-

**Firestorm23**Ah, yes, Rebecca's last line. I hate how I can always think of zingers like that later, but never seem to be able to say them on the spur of the moment. So that's one of my few little unrealistic bits. But there aren't many, I swear!

**Katty008** Oh, I _hate_ showing people my writing. Except online, of course, where no one except Kairi Angel truly knows who I am. Though my writing confidence has gone up recently. I did just win a little writing competition in my English class, and I started a Writing Club that I'm the president of, and I'm going to be entering a real competition soon… -sigh- Writing is a _very _big part of my life at the moment.

But give yourself some confidence boosts! I'm sure that there are some older people that aren't patronizing you, and some classmates that are just too shy to talk to you about your writing. –gives Katty008 a thumb's up- If people online like your writing, then, logically, some people in the real world must too!

**DESTROY-THE-HORMONES** Yeah, hooray for stupid bikes! –high fives D-T-H- Yeah, I do rather like Mustang, but I realize that he would terrify me in real life. I mean, the man can make fire by _snapping_! By the way, nice name! Die hormones, die! Urgh, I do hate them so…

-----------------------

_**Chapter Two **_

**Sasharu**Cookies! –grabs bag and starts eating them ravenously- Thanks! I'm glad you like the story and are also growing to like Rebecca! Hee! –suddenly turns serious and holds up Winry's wrench- Then again… She is the main character and based mainly off myself, so you'd better like her! –smiles-

**BlueRose.xoxo**Gee, thanks! Oh, I can't count all the times that's happened to me with reviews. Sometimes I scroll back and quickly try to figure out what I wanted to say, but other times I'm exhausted and just go, "aw, screw it. –types- This chapter was cool. Um… there were some spelling mistakes… Write some more please." I realize as I'm typing how stupid it sounds, but I'm usually too exhausted to care.

**Katty008**Or better yet, they all speak Amestrisan, their natural tongue! Lol! That made me laugh! It's funny because it's true! That would be a funny little story, you should try writing it! But for the sake of my story, they all speak English. (Which will, believe it or not, be explained later… muahahahaha…)

**Katatsubasa-no-Tenshi**Well, if it weren't for the readers, we writers would have no meaning to our existence. Thanks bunches!

**Agent000** Oh, yeah, definitely. I would only play Truth or Dare with Roy if there was a girl in a miniskirt nearby, therefore diverting all his attention from me. –sticks out tongue at Roy- But Winry asked all sorts of nice questions, luckily. And, believe it or not, I was actually planning on having a game of Truth or Dare with Ed later. He'll be asking her all sorts of –ahem- _fun_ –ahem- questions, and Rebecca will keep wriggling her way out of them. I actually had a plan on a conversation like… **Rebecca:** -sigh- Okay, Ed, Truth or Dare? **Ed:** Hmm… I'll do Truth this time. **Rebecca:** Really? Okaaaay… Um… What's your middle name? **Ed:** Um… **Al:** Come on, Brother, you did pick Truth.** Ed:** -mumbles- **Rebecca:** What was that? **Ed:** -sigh- My middle name is… Leslie. **Rebecca:** -stifles laughter- Really? Well, that's not too, bad, I guess… **Ed:** -glares-

My, my, I do enjoy torturing Ed. That's probably why he's going to butt heads with me a lot in this… -sweatdrops- I run away to Mexico now.

**Dancing Nightmare**Yes, you can never be too sure with me. I do enjoy throwing my readers off.

I'm so glad Rebecca is so very un-Mary-Sue-ish! I was upset just with the fact that Rebecca conveniently ended up at Winry's house. I mean, what are the chances of that happening? And there's even less chance that some random fangirl would just happen to meet Ed and Al first. But Ed and Al aren't even the second (or third, for that matter) main FMA characters Rebecca meets. It pains me to have so long without them, but it must be done. Besides, Ed will hate me when he meets me anyway, so why rush? –sighs and starts humming the death march-

**Suuki-Aldrea** Thanks again! Sorry it took me so darn long to post! –sweatdrops-

**Firestorm23** Thanks! It'll get a whole lot better once Ed and Al jump in, I hope. Again, sorry this took so long to post. I was –ahem- _busy_ –ahem-

**Mew Sarin Alchemist**Yes. 'Cuz we all know that I am very ordinary. –sigh- And I do get sick of only girls falling into the FMA world. But I need to work on my boy-characterization before I can fix that little problem, alas. But boys do pop into the FMA world every blue moon. But compared to all the girls popping in, it's practically nothing. –sigh-

**fadedphantom** Yeah, a lot of people do bash Winry when she's really an okay chick. I think they're jealous that Ed keeps returning to her instead of them… -smirks- And I do try to keep people in character. It's easier now that I've written more fanfics and seen the entire FMA series plus the movie. Sorry the update took forever!

**DESTROY-THE-HORMONES** Yeah, when the questions in Truth or Dare get a little… erm… _personal_… I usually end up wriggling my way out of them, somehow. But other than that, it's okay, I suppose. Certainly not my favorite game. I hate doing Dares though. You'll never be sure what you'll end up having to do. Thanks for the fav, I appreciate it!

**_THANKS AGAIN TO YOU ALL! SORRY THIS IS LATE, UPDATES SHOULD BE QUICKER FROM NOW ON! PLEASE REVIEW!!_**


	4. Chapter 4

_**Chapter Four – Concerning Mail, a Rabbit, and Asthma**_

I sighed and wiped the sweat from my brow as I walked down the street. It had been a busy day at the Curtis butcher shop, so Izumi had me pick up her mail from the post office. She had already discovered earlier that morning that I was terrible at cutting meat. It was a problem that could be fixed easily with a little guidance and practice, but today was just too busy for that. So instead I was out in town, trying to stay out of the way of Izumi, Sig and Mason.

I finally saw the post office and hurried inside, a cool fall breeze rushing around me as I walked in. I quickly got in line and looked around. It was strange to see a post office that didn't have all the smooth lines and fancy machines I was used to. Sure, it wasn't the Victorian age or anything, but it still wasn't home.

"May I help you miss?" a man behind the counter asked. I nodded quickly and hurried up to the counter.

"I'm, uh, here to get, um, Izumi Curtis's mail," I managed to stammer out before quickly reaching into my pocket. "She signed a note in case you didn't believe me," I added, holding the note out to the man. He grabbed it and quickly looked over it before handing it back to me and smiling.

"So you know Izumi Curtis?" he said, and I nodded nervously. "Well, you're certainly different from those two Elrics she took in years ago. How's your training coming along?"

"Training?" I squeaked. "I'm- I'm- I'm not her apprentice! I'm just helping her around the shop! I don't think I can even do alchemy!"

"Right," the man smiled and winked at me. "But I'll tell you one thing – that woman only takes in kids if they have no family and are pretty darn good at alchemy. There were even a few boys before the Elric brothers came along, but none of them had enough determination and were eventually kicked out on their butt." The man paused and looked me over curiously. "Though you are the first girl I've ever seen her take in," he told me. I just sighed exasperatedly and leaned my elbow on the table. "But I'll suppose you'll be wanting that mail, won't you, miss?" he said before hurrying off to get the mail.

I took a deep breath to clear my thoughts, but when I looked up, I noticed that everyone in the room was staring at me with wide eyes. I could hear a few whispered words drift across the room, all of them concerned with me being Izumi's new apprentice.

"I'm really not her apprentice," I explained to them calmly. "I'm just helping around the shop in exchange for a place to stay." I could tell they weren't buying it. Everyone was looking at me skeptically, and a few even rolled their eyes. "Really," I insisted. "It's true. If I was her apprentice then why would I be doing simple things like picking up her mail?"

"Here you go," the man behind the counter said suddenly, and I jerked back to look at him. "Tell the Curtis' that Mike says hi, okay?" I nodded and grabbed the mail from him. I was about to leave when a sudden thought hit me, and I turned back to look at him.

"Hey, what's today's date?" I asked curiously. I had already searched around the Curtis house for a calandar, but when I finally did manage to find one, I discovered that the Curtis' didn't cross off days like some people. All I knew was that it was October, the month of my birthday.

"The twenty-third," the man told me. "The days are just flying by, aren't they?" I nodded and walked out of the post office, clutching the mail tightly to my chest.

Two days. I only had today and tomorrow and then it would be my birthday. My seventeenth birthday. I sighed as I walked slowly down the street, scraping the bottoms of my shoes against the sidewalk. Could this even count as a birthday, considering that in my world it was still summer?

Yes, I decided after a moment of thought. As much as it pained me to think about it, what if I never did get back home? I couldn't keep living my life by another world's calendar. It was just too complicated. I paused and looked at my reflection in one of the shop windows.

If I had seen the reflection just a few days ago, I wouldn't have believed it could be me. After a minute of looking at myself, I realized that while I was still 3-D, I had become more manga-ized. For the first time in years, my face was _completely_ clear of pimples, and while I was wearing the same clothes I had in my world, somehow they managed to show off more of my figure here. I had always known that I had an okay figure, but I had never been very comfortable in showing it off. Now it seemed like I didn't have a choice in the matter. Even in baggy clothes my figure seemed to show.

I sighed and ran a hand through my short brown hair as I took in the other changes about my appearance. My chin seemed sharper, my nose smaller, my eyes larger and more turquoise than blue. I guessed that was because practically everyone in Fullmetal Alchemist had weird colored eyes. Yellow, gray, black, red, mahogany… The odds were against it in real life.

I shook my head and turned away from the window, realizing that I was being silly. So what if my appearance had changed? I was still the same person deep down, wasn't I? That was what really mattered. Besides, once I got home my appearance would probably go back to normal, so it wasn't anything to get worked up over.

"Oh, sorry," I said as I accidentally bumped into someone. "I didn't mean-" I suddenly froze as I realized that the figure in front of me was Envy. What was he doing in Dublith, anyway?

"Um, hey, thanks for doing that the other day," I said nervously as I remembered what he had done on the train. "If it weren't for you-"

"I don't know what you're talking about," Envy said icily. "Now get out of my way, _girl_." He pushed me roughly to the side and quickly walked around me, his barely clothed feet stomping angrily against the pavement. Tears almost leaked out my eyes, but I quickly held them back. I hated crying in public.

"Thank you!" I called out to Envy shakily. He froze in his tracks and glanced back over at his shoulder at me. I thought I saw him flash a genuine smile at me before turning around again, but then quickly dismissed the thought, realizing that my eyes were blurry with tears. I then hurried on to the Curtis' butcher shop.

Things had calmed down considerably compared to when I had left earlier that afternoon. In fact, no one was in the shop. Mason and Izumi were slumped in chairs looking exhausted, while Sig kept his usual stance behind the counter. I quickly handed the mail to Izumi, who flipped slowly through it before uninterestedly dumping it on an end table.

"Why don't we go out for a picnic?" Izumi suggested. Mason looked at her with a surprised look, but she glared at him and then he quickly looked away as if nothing was wrong.

"A picnic sounds nice," I said enthusiastically. "We could pack some nice sandwiches, and some juice and go out to some nice park or something and just relax. It's been kinda hard around here lately."

"Yes," Izumi agreed. "But I was thinking that maybe instead we could go out to a little island nearby. It's completely uninhabited, and very scenic. It's a beautiful place to have a picnic."

"Okay," I agreed with a grin, thinking about how I would be able to see the same place where Ed and Al had survived off the land for an entire month. I knew that I wouldn't ever want to do the same thing myself, but I sure would be interested in looking at it in person.

"You three go ahead without me," Mason said weakly, and I suddenly noticed that his face looked a little pale. "I'm not feeling so good."

"Are you sure?" I said worriedly. "You don't have to eat anything, you could just come and talk with everyone else." I hoped Mason could mainly because I could talk with him more easily than Izumi or Sig. Sig never really engaged in what I could call a 'conversation,' and the last time I had tried to talk to Izumi it had ended in me scrubbing the floors. Mason seemed cheerful enough, and was willing to talk with me when we were both sure we wouldn't get scolded for not working.

"I'm sure," Mason nodded. "I don't think I could handle going out on that boat with you three."

"Well, we could go somewhere else," I suggested quickly.

"No, you guys have fun. I'll see you when you get back, kid," Mason told me with a weak smile. I grinned back at him, remembering how my uncle had always called me 'kid' back in my world.

"Honey, would you please help me pack some sandwiches?" Izumi said sweetly, turning to her husband. Sig nodded and quickly moved to walk off to the kitchen.

"Hang on, I just want to get my journal," I hastily explained to Izumi before running up to my room. I found a pencil lying around easily enough, but after dumping out my backpack and pulling back the covers of my bed, I still couldn't find my journal.

"Hurry up, Rebecca, we want to leave soon!" I heard Izumi call from downstairs. I knew how easily story ideas could slip from my grasp if I didn't write them down immediately, so I did one last frantic search of the room.

It was then that I noticed Ed's journal lying innocently on top of the dresser. It was paper, and I knew I could tear pages out if I actually did write anything in it. I quickly snatched the journal and clomped back down the stairs.

"Ready," I panted, clutching the green journal tightly in my hands.

"I thought your journal was purple," Izumi said as she looked me over suspiciously. "That journal belongs to someone else. Did you read anything in it?"

"Only the first page," I admitted sheepishly. I decided to leave out the fact that I had also flipped to the last page and read that. "But I need something to write on just in case an awesome story pops into my head while we're on the picnic. I'll tear out any pages I use."

"You better treat that with respect," Izumi told me sternly. "I know that the owner of that wouldn't be too happy if he found out that someone else was carrying it all over creation, even if they hadn't read it."

"I know," I said as I bit my lip worriedly. Izumi nodded once and then led the way out of the house, with Sig walking behind her and carrying a picnic basket. I looked around once and then quickly trotted after them. Mason seemed to have disappeared.

"So, what are we having for lunch?" I asked as I tried to keep up with Izumi. She had long legs and was setting a very brisk pace. I could already feel my side beginning to ache with the effort of keeping up with her.

"Ham and cheese sandwiches," Izumi replied briskly as she turned left with Sig right by her side. I paused for a moment and then quickly followed them down the new street.

"Are we going to rent a boat, or do you guys own one?" I asked curiously, swinging my arms from side to side as I walked. I could remember her heading out in a small rowboat with the Elrics, but I couldn't remember whether they owned the boat or not.

"Are you always this curious, or is this a special treat?" Izumi sighed as she looked at me. I just shrugged innocently, so she answered, "We go out to this island often enough to own a boat. Renting boats can just be such a pain sometimes."

"We rented a boat once," I said excitedly as I walked. "My aunt got it so that we could go fishing. It had a motor, and a canopy, and everything. But I didn't catch any fish. Not even little ones. I think I was too impatient."

"That's too bad," Izumi said, and I got the feeling she was humoring me. "Patience is a valuable skill later in life. You should work on that."

"Yeah, I know," I sighed, and kicked at a loose pebble on the street. "It's just that fishing can get really boring if you're sitting out there day after day – in the rain – and not catching anything. And then the one time you go inside to relax, your younger brothers finally catch at least three fish each. And then when I went and tried the exact same thing they did, I got nothing. And _then_ my hook got caught in a tree on top of everything else. And it was a nice hook too. My aunt got it for me, and it was all purple and sparkly, and when I cast it in the water, it would hum and just glide on top of the water. And then I had to go and get the thing stuck in a tree!"

"Rebecca?"

"And it was cold too. I mean, it was summer, but we practically wanted to wear mittens out there! And then we went on the boat, and the wind just made everything colder, and-"

"Rebecca!" Izumi shouted, and I could practically hear the stress marks in her voice.

"What?" I said innocently, and noticed that Izumi was looking at me angrily – from her seat in a small rowboat.

"Just get in the boat already!"

"Yes, ma'am!" I said hurriedly and climbed into the boat with her and Sig.

* * *

I felt myself grin happily as I felt the fresh air whip my hair out of my face. Even though I couldn't swim, I had always loved the feeling of being on a boat. It had always worried my mom to pieces, but so far I hadn't come anywhere near drowning.

Izumi looked at me and rolled her eyes just as the boat scraped up against the shore. I quickly climbed out along with Sig, who pulled it further up the shore. I spun in a circle a few times, letting the smell of nature wrap around me. When I stopped, Izumi tossed a dagger to me. I was barely able to catch it and then looked up at Izumi in surprise.

"We need rope for the boat," she explained to me. "There are plenty of vines around here that would work just as well. Go cut some down for us." I nodded and walked off, clutching Ed's journal in one hand, and the dagger in the other.

"What kind of idiot doesn't bring rope when they're going on a boat?" I muttered to myself as I carefully picked my way through the forest. I quickly found a vine that was long enough to work as rope, and carefully pulled the dagger out of its sheath and began sawing at the vine. When I had cut through, I carefully wound up the vine and started trudging back to the shore.

When I finally got back, I saw that the picnic basket was still there, but the boat seemed to have disappeared. I looked up quickly, hoping that it hadn't floated away because I had taken too long with the rope. Sure enough, the boat was floating out on the water, but with two figures sitting in it.

"Hey!" I shouted, waving my arms frantically. "Come back!"

"It's for your own good, Rebecca!" I heard Izumi shout back. "I'll pick you up in thirty days! Don't use alchemy, and think about the phrase 'all is one and one is all'!"

"I never asked to be your stupid apprentice!" I shouted back angrily. "Come back!"

"Swim out to the boat if you don't want to do it!" I barely heard Izumi shout. She and Sig were getting further away.

"But I can't swim!" I shouted as loudly as I could, sinking to my knees in despair. I knew she hadn't heard me when I didn't hear a reply or see the boat turn around. I sighed and managed to climb to my feet after a moment of self-pity. I then turned to the picnic basket and opened it, only to find that it only had one sandwich and a note inside. I quickly reached in and opened the note.

_Nice try, Rebecca. 30 days. 'All is one and one is all.' _

"I know!" I growled at the note before crumpling it and throwing it further down the beach. I then reached in and grabbed the sandwich, angrily tearing off large bites with my teeth. A sudden rustle from the forest made me look up in surprise.

A large man burst out of the forest, wearing a large jungle cat mask that looked similar to the style of the Aztecs. I quickly remembered how Mason had claimed to be 'sick' before we left for the picnic, and then had seemingly disappeared.

"Aw, fork," I groaned and shoved the last bite of my sandwich into my mouth. I jumped to my feet as I hurriedly chewed the ham and cheese, keeping my eyes on Mason the entire time.

"This is my island," he growled angrily at me. "You get off."

"Well, can't we share?" I suggested weakly after swallowing the last bit of my lunch. "You know, I stay on this half, and you stay on the other. That way, everybody's happy." The jungle man – Mason - just growled at me in reply. "No?" I said nervously. He didn't say anything in reply, so I then just turned around and started running as fast as I could.

I could hear Mason running behind me, but I tried to push it out of my mind and focused completely on running. I tried to run faster as I felt Mason's fingers barely brush against my back, but my breath started wheezing and my legs aching. I collapsed on the ground, and luckily for me, Mason had finally given up on the chase.

"I don't want to be an apprentice!" I protested once I had caught my breath again. "I just want to get home! I'm not even supposed to be here! And now I'm going to be stuck on this stupid island for my birthday!"

My stomach suddenly growled, interrupting me out of my thoughts. I hadn't even had breakfast that morning, and _one_ sandwich for lunch just wasn't enough. I sighed and wrapped my arms tightly around my stomach. I had never even been camping, so I didn't even know how to tell what plants were okay to eat and which weren't.

I slowly pulled myself to my feet and started trudging through the forest. I carefully pushed branches out of the way, but smaller plants kept hitting my legs. I desperately hoped that none of them were poison ivy; I didn't want to spend the majority of the month with a rash.

I suddenly stopped and looked down at the patch of ground in front of my feet. Right there in front of me was a small patch of mushrooms. I could remember how my mom used to tell me about how she had used to go camping and eat mushrooms they found. She had always told me that if the mushrooms weren't brightly colored, then they were usually safe to eat.

The mushrooms in front of me didn't look very colorful, but I knelt down and examined them more closely anyway. The just seemed to be the usual color that mushrooms were, and they smelled okay, so I carefully pulled them out of the ground. I then carefully threaded my way back to the shore and carefully rinsed them in the water.

Without a second thought, I then popped the mushrooms into my mouth, hoping that they wouldn't end up killing me. Though the mushrooms were barely a handful, and so they hardly filled me up. I sighed and leaned back on my palms, only to feel the spine of a book and a smooth dagger. I had accidentally left them there when Mason had showed up out of nowhere.

I grinned slightly to myself, though I wasn't quite sure why. After all, I was trapped on an uninhabited island without any way to get off. And yet the simple pleasure of a pencil and paper could still make me smile. I then carefully pulled the diary into my lap, pulled a pencil out of my pocket, and flipped to an open page.

"Sorry, Ed" I muttered under my breath as I pressed the pencil against the paper. "I need something to do while I'm stuck here. But I promise I won't read anymore of your journal." I then carefully started to write.

_Day One_

_So here I am, stuck on this stupid little island. I never even said I wanted to train under Izumi and yet I still have to do her test. I have no clue how I'm going to get through this, since the last time I was in Girl Scouts was back in fourth grade, and I can't even remember that very well. _

_Besides, on top of that there's "the crazy jungle man" that's going to be fighting me pretty much every chance he gets. Too bad my brothers were the ones that got the karate lessons. Why couldn't I have asked to have lessons too? _

_And while I'm at it, why couldn't I have learned to swim? I know I'm scared of water, but isn't it better to face my fear than to run away from it like a little girl? _

_My father always tried to teach me how to swim. No matter how many times he tried dipping me underwater, I was still scared, even though I knew he wouldn't let me drown. And then when he would say that I was being silly, I knew that he was scared that someday I would be in a position where I __needed__ to swim. I guess he was right about that. _

_I should have listened to my dad more. Now I'm off in this strange new world all by myself. I really miss my dad - and my mom too. They really are good parents and here I am in another world, not sure if I will ever be able to get back to them. _

I suddenly stopped writing as I felt a lump in my throat. There was no way I could just stay in this world without my mom or dad. Sure, it was cool to be in the Fullmetal Alchemist world, but I had a family waiting for me.

I felt a tickle on my arm and quickly slapped at a mosquito trying to get a free meal. The mosquito was squashed, but when I wiped it away, a small droplet of blood followed. I sighed, quickly licked my thumb and wiped the offending red away.

I suddenly heard a twig snap in the bushes behind me and quickly spun around, expecting to see Mason in his jungle-cat disguise, but instead it was a small fox with a rabbit in its mouth. I quickly snapped the journal shut and inched forward towards the small animal.

"Hey there little guy," I said softly as I continued to inch myself forward. The fox regarded me with large black eyes. "Don't worry, I'm not going to hurt you," I cooed gently. The fox suddenly dropped the rabbit, reached up and bit me, then ran off.

"Oh, gee, thanks!" I shouted into the rustling bushes as I cradled my left thumb against my chest. I then quickly brought it up to my mouth, sucked on the wound, and then spit the blood onto the beach. I had heard too many rabies stories to take my chances.

"Great," I muttered as I started waving my still stinging hand through the air. "Just great. And I don't even have a first aid kit or anything. I'm hungry. I'm cold. And my thumb hurts. Now what?" I suddenly stopped and looked over at the area where the fox had just been. The dead rabbit still laid there, its eyes glossed over. I shuddered once and then turned back to my thumb.

When I looked more closely, I realized that a whole flap of skin was poking up from the bite. I carefully reached out and pressed it back down against the wound with a wince. I looked around for something to wrap the wound in, but couldn't find anything. I then looked down at my shirt. It was already a baggy shirt, and if I cut a little off the bottom, then it would still be fine.

I looked around nervously, and then while I desperately hoped that Mason wouldn't come charging out of the bushes, peeled off my shirt, revealing the purple bra underneath.

I carefully laid the shirt out flat on the beach, and then used a stick to measure out a strip of shirt that was approximately an inch thick, being careful not to get blood on the shirt. Every time I moved my left hand I ended up wincing in pain. I really hoped I wasn't infected with something.

I then pulled the dagger carefully out of its sheath and began to carefully cut the shirt. I cut an almost perfect straight line after a minute or two of careful work. I grinned to myself, pulled the shirt back on, and wrapped the scrap of cloth carefully around my finger. I then tied it in a tight knot to make sure it wouldn't go anywhere. The piece of cloth was already stained red with blood.

I then looked around the beach and saw that it was littered with my few worldly possessions. I thought I didn't have much when I first came to Amestris, now I had even less. There was the dagger, the picnic basket, Ed's journal, and the dead rabbit. And if "the crazy jungle man" was going to be attacking me constantly, I figured I had to do something to protect my few belongings.

I carefully put Ed's journal in the picnic basket and looked around for a place to hide it. I had nearly put the dagger in the basket before smacking myself on the head and remembering how important one small tool could be on a deserted island.

Finding no hiding place, I began to dig a hole with my bare hands. It took awhile to get the soft sand to make a hole big enough to fit the picnic basket, but I finally managed and shoved the wicker basket deep in the ground.

Once it was covered again, I quickly found some seashells and put them in a circle to mark where I had buried Ed's journal. I then carefully threaded the dagger sheath onto my belt and turned to the rabbit.

My stomach nearly turned when I saw the poor creature lying there with its neck in an awkward position, but then I quickly shoved those thoughts aside and tried to figure out how to cook the durned thing. I couldn't even remember the last time I had_eaten _rabbit, and I knew I had never helped my mom cook any rabbits.

"_Now there's only one way to eat a brace o' coneys,"_ I heard Sam from the Lord of the Rings say in my head.**(1) **I laughed as I remembered the scene of him cooking the rabbits while Smeagol spit in distaste. Then I suddenly remembered that he had carried along all his cooking utensils, including the pot he had cooked the stew in.

"But I'm not Samwise Gamgee!" I groaned, flopping backwards on the sand. "I'm not even in the Lord of the Rings world – thank goodness, that would have been a nightmare – I'm in the Fullmetal Alchemist world, without any stupid pots to cook stew in! I don't even know how to cook a stinkin' rabbit!"

I sighed and slowly pulled myself into a sitting position. If I didn't act soon, the rabbit would go bad and I would have to find food another way. I had already been lucky enough to get food without really working for it, I shouldn't just let it go to waste.

I slowly crawled over to the rabbit and grabbed its leg. I shuddered as I felt the soft fur of what had once been a living, breathing creature. The flow of life seemed so much different here, where life could be there one day and gone the next.

I carefully swallowed and pulled the dagger out of its sheath. I had no clue what I was doing, but I knew that I had to some how skin the rabbit, clean it, make a fire and cook it.

It seemed like a tall order for a girl that had never gone camping in her life before.

To this day, I'm still not very sure how I managed to skin the rabbit and somehow start a fire, but I did. I wasn't really sure what to do with the rabbit fur however, and was contemplating that very thought as the rabbit roasted over the fire, while the sun set in the distance.

I knew that rabbit skins were somehow capable of being cleaned and made into nice warm clothes, I just wasn't sure how. And even if I did know how to clean them, I had no clue where I could get a needle or thread. I knew that Native Americans had used bones of the animals they killed and some other part to make needles and thread, but I had barely managed to cook and clean the rabbit. I didn't think I could use its parts for a survivor edition of home economics class.

I then carefully pulled the rabbit away from the fire and slid it onto a large but clean leaf that I had decided to use as a plate. I carefully touched a pointer finger to the meat, but immediately pulled it back with a hiss and decided to let the rabbit cool a little before I ate it.

"Get off my island!" suddenly rang through the trees, making me jump to my feet. I carefully waved my left thumb through the air a few times, hoping that it would stop stinging for a few minutes while I defended my territory. I then pulled out the dagger hanging at my side and pointed it carefully in front of me, not wanting to get any closer to the sharp point than I had to. Mason suddenly burst out of the woods and glared at me, sweat dripping off his body.

"My food," I said defiantly. "Mine. You're not going to take it."

"This is my island," Mason replied in a deep voice. "All food on it belongs to me. I decide who lives, and who dies." He then lunged towards me to grab the rabbit I had worked so long for, but I instinctively reached out and cut him across the arms. A dark red line appeared suddenly on his arm, and he jumped back again, clutching at the wound.

He jumped forward again, this time sparring with me. I was barely able to defend myself thanks to the dagger, but then he hit my wrist and the dagger went flying farther down the beach, where I knew I wouldn't be able to reach it. I looked down at it in despair, and then suddenly felt a fist hit me in the stomach.

I felt myself fly backwards a few feet before landing painfully on the beach. I slowly dragged myself back to my feet while rubbing at the area where my tailbone was throbbing. I was sure there was going to be a bruise later.

"Leave me alone!" I said angrily, stepping forward to protect the rabbit I had slaved for. Mason either didn't seem to hear me or choose to ignore it, and he quickly started sparing with me again. Without my dagger, I felt completely defenseless, and ended just barely dodging punch after punch. I wasn't even attempting to attack Mason, just to not get hit myself.

All light from the sun was gone now, and I was only able to see Mason because he was such a big, looming shadow. I felt myself start wheezing with every breath I took, but I tried to ignore it and kept dodging punch after punch. My lungs started to feel like they were the size of walnuts, but I kept pushing myself until I collapsed to the ground.

Mason went to take the rabbit, but then seemed to notice that I was wheezing loudly and even shaking a little. He left the rabbit on the leaf and carefully went over to me, pushing his mask up so that his face was showing.

"Hey, kid, you alright?" he asked me worriedly. I shook my head quickly and focused more on breathing. I knew that Mason wasn't actually touching me, but it felt like he was sitting on my chest.

"Asthma…" I said weakly, and trying to gulp in breaths of air. I had a feeling that this was how a fish felt when it was taken out of water. "Need… medicine… at… house…" Mason quickly nodded and I felt myself being lifted into the air.

"Don't worry kid, I got a boat," he reassured me quickly as I felt wind cutting quickly across me. "We'll get back to the house in no time."

"Ed's… journal… in… sand… under… circle…" I said weakly, taking a deep breath after each word. No matter how hard I breathed in, it was like my lungs just couldn't get any bigger. I was definitely regretting pushing myself so hard against Mason.

"Don't worry, kid, we'll get it later," Mason reassured me. I nodded gratefully and focused more on breathing.

I can't say I fell unconscious at that point, because there's no way I could fall unconscious when I'm having so much trouble with my breathing. Besides, I can remember what happened, so I know I was conscious.

Life just became more of a blur after that point. I can remember Mason rushing me back to the Curtis house and then up to my room for my medicine, and then sitting in my room while he explained the situation to Izumi. When I finally walked down to the living room again, Mason had gone to get Ed's journal, and Izumi immediately rushed me back up to my room to rest.

* * *

I sat up in my bed later that night in complete darkness, unable to sleep. I had been falling asleep for about hour-long chunks and then attempting to sleep again for twice as long since Izumi had originally sent me to bed. I had tried using my inhaler again, but my asthma just didn't seem to go away. So I had finally surrendered and decided to just stay awake until exhaustion won out.

"Are you okay?" a deep voice said from the hall. I hadn't heard it very often, but I knew it was Sig. "You been pretty quiet for a while now."

"I can't believe I just put Rebecca on that island without any warning," I heard Izumi say quietly. "I didn't know she had asthma. If it weren't for Mason, she could have died."

"But Mason was there, and she didn't die," Sig assured her. "It wasn't your fault that you didn't know about her asthma. Besides, Mason said that her asthma attack was probably caused by her pushing herself too hard during the fight."

"I know," Izumi said softly, and I was suddenly reminded of my own mom. My grandmother had used guilt trips on my mom instead of punishments, so my mom felt guilty for things that really weren't her fault most of the time. "How come every child I find that reminds me of myself as a child seems to get so close to danger?"

I froze in my bed. I reminded Izumi of herself when she was a little girl? That couldn't be right. She had to be talking about someone else. Maybe she had just switched topics really easily.

"First there were Ed and Al," Izumi continued softly. "Those two get themselves into trouble on a regular basis now."

I sighed in relief. So she was comparing Ed and Al to the younger version of herself. That made more sense than comparing me to her. I mean, I was nothing compared to the tornado that was Izumi.

"And then this happens to Rebecca?" Izumi finished. I was sure that was the point where I would have fallen over if my life really was a manga or an anime. "That day when I first saw her, she had this look of sheer determination on her face. I thought she would be able to handle the island."

"She could handle the island," Sig told her. "She went and caught a rabbit and cooked it on her first day. Even the Elrics didn't do that." I nearly shouted through the door that I hadn't caught the rabbit, I had just been very lucky, but I quickly caught myself and clamped a hand over my mouth.

"I know, but…" Izumi trailed off.

"You shouldn't worry too much. You know what happens when you stress out over something," Sig said worriedly

"Aw, honey, I'm sorry," Izumi said sweetly. I practically fell over again. How quickly could this woman switch moods?

"I just don't want anything to happen to you," Sig said, and I had the feeling they were hugging.

"I know, sweetie, thank you," Izumi cooed back. The two paused, and then Izumi suddenly started again, "I did the island test when I was about Rebecca's age. I ended up caving in and doing alchemy after only two days." She chuckled slightly, and I was barely able to hold back a snort. "I know that girl's got the spirit to become something great someday, and I can tell she's got a talent for alchemy, too."

"Then why hasn't she used her alchemy yet?" Sig wondered aloud. "You've given her all sorts of different chores; I would think that most kids her age would want to find the easy way out of them."

"I think she's too stubborn," Izumi said with a slight chuckle. "I never said she could use alchemy, so I think she wants to prove that she can do all those chores without using alchemy. I guess I'll have to cut straight to the punch tomorrow and ask her directly about alchemy."

"I'll mind the store while you're with her," Sig said.

"I know, honey. Thank you," Izumi said gently. "I suppose we should get to bed now." I heard a grunt from Sig and knew they were going to their bedroom.

I sighed and leaned back on the pillows of the bed. If Izumi was expecting some big alchemy performance tomorrow, then she was going to be sorely mistaken. I had already tried drawing a few transmutation circles in my room (being the geek I am) and nothing had happened for me so far. I don't know what made her think I had any sort of alchemic talent.

I sighed and rolled over onto my side, hoping it would help improve my breathing. And now she had not only said I was similar to the Elrics, but also to herself. It seemed that everyone in this world thought I was destined for greatness.

Well, of course I was destined for greatness, I thought with an exasperated sigh. I was the fangirl that mysteriously popped up in the Fullmetal Alchemist world. I groaned to myself and closed my eyes. Why couldn't someone else take my place? I knew I hated reading about them, but I would have much preferred if some Mary-Sue was in my place.

Why me?

_**AdventureAddict cannot possibly own Fullmetal Alchemist **_**or**_** Lord of the Rings, unless the happy places in her mind count. **_

**(1) Samwise Gamgee – One of the main characters in Lord of the Rings, for those who might not know. He is a good cook, and when he and Frodo were on a quest, he managed to carry a whole set of different cooking tools, until it got to the point where he had to leave them behind. Yep, I'm a LotR nerd! XD**

**Sorry this is a little shorter than usual. Hey, at least Ed and Al will (hopefully) be coming in next chapter! **

**I told you the updates would start coming faster now! I feel good. Fortunately, it's Thanksgiving break, so I have lots of spare time on my hands. –rolls up sleeves- But I'm afraid I'm also going to have to post for other fanfics. But right now Wish Granted has really been feeling the love! I really did owe it to all you guys after so long without posting.**

**-AA turns an interesting shade of red- Eh heh… Now onto review replies!**

_**Chapter One**_

**Renneh** Gee, thanks! –scratches head- Yeah, unfortunately Ed won't start making out with me right away. –sigh- I know what I act like, and, well… my attitude paired with the fact that I have an insanely tall father (leading to me being tall, of course)… Yeah, Ed's not going to like me too much. –sigh-

And even if Ed _did_ immediately fall in love with me, no hot sex, thank you very much. Unless of course, we get married. -snorts- And that's even more doubtful than Ed loving me on sight. **  
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_**Chapter Three**_

**fadedphantom** Oh phew, I'm glad Izumi was okay! I was so worried about her! She's a bit of a tricky character in my opinion, and it was my first time ever writing her, so… I felt like I was in the middle of Six Flags without any maps. Fun, but scaaaary.

Yes, I bet that deep down Ed grew to love his journal very dearly. I did the "writing writing writing wri" thing once myself actually. It was for this exercise where you have to write for ten minutes solid, even if it means writing complete gibberish. So that's where the idea came from.

Thank you so much! Here's the next chapter for ya!

**tomato sauce** Ah! Ah! Harassment! Okay, here you go! –when tomato is distracted by new chapter, AA quickly runs off and hides behind a sofa- **  
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**Firestorm23** Yay! –grabs confetti off ground and throws it up a second time- Thanks, it seems that a lot of people liked the diary part. –scratches head- It's good to know I did Izumi justice, she deserves it!

**Zilo's Blue Pen** Yeah, it seems a lot of people were waiting to see when I would update. I was sad that I hadn't worked on it forever, though I was never ever planning on abandoning it. I've got the _entire dang_ plot worked out in my head, there's no way I'm leaving this puppy in the dust! –hugs story-

Yeah, Envy is just creepy at times. I don't even know why I thought of that section, I just figured that _some_main character from the series should be on the train. I just wasn't sure who, since I couldn't put Ed and Al on it. –sigh- I can't wait until they come into the story.

Yes, Izumi rocks! –fist pump- But Rebecca didn't want to leave her note in the book because she's pretty self-conscious. That doesn't mean Ed can't find it later, of course. [insert evil laughter here We'll see where it goes, won't we?

Thank you so much! I'll try my best! –rolls up sleeves-

**YourFavouitePlushie** Oh yeah, I found my absolute favoritest fanfic ever just by browsing. And the first fanfic I ever read was found by browsing, which was also pretty good, actually. –strokes chin- Though that was back in my Pirates of the Caribbean fanfic phase…

Yeah, you make sense. I'm glad that you can relate to Rebecca easily. –grins- At least I'm doing that right.

If you're a new reader you wouldn't know how long it took me to get out chapter three. Let's see, that was back in the summer when I was bored, and now it's November… -ticks off on fingers- so that's about… five months. But now the updates should be faster. I got –ahem- _distracted_ –ahem-

Thanks so much:D

**Katatsubasa-no-Tenshi:** Yes, yes, I'm alive. Sorry I kept you waiting so long. Eh heh. And "_Rebecca finally meets Izumi"_? Were you really expecting that to come up sometime soon? Don't worry, it shouldn't be too long until Ed and Al finally come along. I know people are looking forward to that chapter. –grins-

**agent000:** Yeah, my parents actually knew a boy in college whose _first_name was Leslie. That was pretty much where the idea came from. I thought that Edward Leslie Elric actually fit together reasonably well, and that would certainly be a reason why it never seemed to show up at all. But I like Sylvan a lot too. The only problem with that is that it makes me think of "Sylvan Learning Centers." But Edward Sylvan Elric sounds pretty darn good too, and more old fashioned, at that. I've been having trouble with character middle names. The thing is, I want something where the meaning also fits the charcter. Hmm… -pulls out a baby name book- Let's see here… Edward means "happy protector," Leslie means "from the gray fortress," and Sylvan means- not in my baby name book. Drat! Now I'm curious! –flips through book again- Hmm. Alphonse means "Noble and eager." Aw! And Roy means "King." –rolls eyes- Well, no wonder. My middle name is Alice, which means "Truth." –pauses- [insert evil laughter here

And yes, I'm scared of ghosts, but only because I don't know much about them. To be honest, I would be scared of a unicorn, though it would be sooo cool to see one. If we lived in a world - heck, even a time – where parents taught their children that ghosts are real, then I wouldn't be scared of them at all. Though now it would take work for me to not be naturally scared of ghosts at all.

Thanks bunches! I'll try to update quickly! You update some of your fics in exchange, okay? –snickers-

**Sasharu:** Thanks! I know, I know. Updates should go more quickly now. –sweatdrops-

**Mew Sarin Alchemist:** Oh, you're not late on the reviewing at all! –hug- Part of what I love about posting for Wish Granted is that reviews just _flow_ in. It makes me happy. –grins- And I'll keep writing if you guys keep reviewing. If I get only two reviews on a story that - on average - has fifteen pages and literally takes me _days_ to type up, even if I type straight through the whole day- Well, I'd_eventually_post, but it would probably take a long time. So keep reviewing and there'll be TWO happy people in the world. :D

**DESTROY-THE-HORMONES:** Ugh. I _hate_ it when guys do that. I've had guys ask me out that I know wouldn't want to date me, but they're just asking me out to annoy me. Ergh. –kicks in the crotch- HOW DO YOU LIKE THEM BEANS, BUDDY?!

And that's why I don't pick dares. Ever. 'Nuff said.

**Suuki-Aldrea:** Thank you! I will try! Hoohah!


	5. Chapter 5

**Wish Grated has hit fifty-one pages in Word and also has fifty-one reviews! Of course, that's all screwy now that I've posted another chapter, but-! Thank you all so much! That's just amazing!**

_**Chapter Five – Concerning Alchemy, Brothers, and Clothes**_

I slowly walked down to the kitchen the next morning, dressed, once again, in my cargo pants and Get Caught Reading shirt. I knew that I really needed to get some new clothes, but I hadn't managed to get enough free time to go shopping for clothes.

"Heya, kid," Mason grinned at me while I sleepily rubbed at one eye. "Don't you have any other clothes?" I glared at him, so he quickly switched topics. "How're ya feeling, kid?"

"Better," I shrugged simply. "The medicine definitely helped."

"Good," Mason grinned. "We were all worried about you. You want some breakfast?" he added, and held out a plate of scrambled eggs. I nodded eagerly, grabbed the plate and quickly dug in. After about two bites I quickly looked up.

"Do you have any ketchup?" I asked Mason, who raised both his eyebrows curiously. "I like to put ketchup on scrambled eggs," I explained to him. "I know it sounds weird, but I like it." Mason nodded and pulled a jar filled with a red substance off the counter. I gratefully grabbed it from him and then carefully spooned some onto my eggs. Mason watched me interestedly as I then put some ketchup-covered eggs into my mouth.

"Oh, good," Izumi said as she walked into the room. "You're awake. Come into the library when you're done, I got something I want to talk to you about." She then walked back out of the room. I sighed and finished off the last of my eggs before standing up.

"She really was worried about you too," Mason shrugged with a slight laugh. "She just doesn't like to show it the same way as most people." I sighed and then walked off to the library to see what Izumi had planned for me, even though I already had an idea.

Sure enough, when I walked into the library, a large transmutation circle covered most of the floor. Izumi was sitting in a chair and looked at me expectantly when I walked into the room. After a moment of consideration I realized she wanted me to say something.

"A transmutation circle," I sighed. Izumi nodded and walked over to the doorway, being careful not to smudge any of the white chalk lines. "You know, I really don't know anything about alchemy. It's just that'd you have to be an idiot in this world if you don't even know what a transmutation circle is."

"I agree," Izumi said. "With alchemy all over the news the way it is today, it's a surprise to me that it isn't a normal class in public schools. Only some private schools offer alchemy classes. But I think you know more than what you've just heard on the news," Izumi said just as I was about to ask her more about private alchemy schools. "And even if you don't know alchemy, you still have a talent for it. Now, put your hands on the circle."

I sighed and crouched in front of the circle. I hesitated for a moment as I realized that I didn't even know what it could do, but then pushed the thought aside and clapped my hands to the circle. No blue light flared up, not even a sound. I turned to Izumi with a victorious grin.

"See?" I said triumphantly, but she just shrugged.

"That doesn't prove anything," she said simply. "Just because you're not letting the power flow through your body doesn't mean it can't. If you can't get that circle to work by the end of the day you'll have to do fifty pushups."

"But that's not fair!" I whined. Izumi just ignored me and left the room. I then focused my attention on glaring at the transmutation circle in front of me. "Stupid circle," I growled through clenched teeth. I wished something would happen when I touched the circle; that somehow I would let the power flow through me like Izumi said I had to.

I clapped my hands to the circle again, and this time a bright blue light shone around me. I could feel the power flowing up through my hands and into the rest of my body. It felt dangerous, as if it could burn me, and yet at the same time it felt very nice, like hot chocolate sliding down my throat on a cold day.

I sat there silently, drinking in the strange feeling, but then it suddenly stopped. I opened my eyes in surprise, only to find that a mug filled with a steaming brown liquid was sitting in the center

"Hot chocolate?" Izumi said curiously, and I noticed that she was standing beside the doorway to the library. What was with her and popping in and out of rooms? "Did you know that it focuses your thoughts and turns them into physical reality?"

"Um, no," I sighed. "I said I hadn't done alchemy before. That was my first time."

"Hmm." Izumi walked into the circle, picked up the mug and carefully took a sip after blowing gently on the still steaming liquid. She winced slightly, but swallowed the liquid and put the mug back down on the floor. "Considering the materials you had to work with, that's not half bad," Izumi said as she looked around the room.

I curiously reached forward and grabbed the mug. The warmth of the mug seemed to seep through my entire body, as if it was responding to me. I curiously took a sip of the liquid, but almost immediately spit it back out. It tasted like chocolate-flavored paper.

"I'm actually surprised you got the chocolate flavor," Izumi said amusedly, watching my look of disgust directed towards the hot chocolate. "And you got it hot, which is certainly good. You just need to work on your concentration a little more." I blushed at the comment, knowing that it was true. "Now, put the room back to normal," Izumi said simply and then walked back out of the room.

I scowled at the transmutation circle for a moment in hesitation before clapping my hands to the circle a second time. When I felt the power start flowing up my arms and into the rest of my body, I tried to focus my thoughts on a smooth hardwood floor without a cup of hot chocolate on it. I made sure to channel my thoughts on just the floor, and when I felt the power ebb out of me and opened my eyes, the floor was back to what it had been before my alchemy.

"I could definitely get used to this," I said with a grin to myself. I looked around the room and noticed a small rag and a box of chalk off to the side. I quickly grabbed the rag and started rubbing at the circle, the chalk easily wiping off the hardwood floor. Once the floor was clean, I quickly looked through the books on the bookshelves, knowing that practically all of them had to do with alchemy.

I finally settled on a book by the name of _The Treasure of Treasures for Alchemists_, thinking about how the title at least made it sound good. Opening to the first page, I curled up in the one chair in the room and began to read, keeping the box of chalk in one hand for the time when I finally got to a circle I could try to imitate.

_The Treasure of Treasures for Alchemists_

_By Philippus Theophrastus Bombast_

_NATURE begets a mineral in the bowels of the earth. There are two kinds of it, which are found in many districts of Europe. The best which has been offered to me, which also has been found genuine in experimentation, is externally in the figure of the greater world, and is in the eastern part of the sphere of the Sun. The other, in the Southern Star, is now in its first efflorescence. The bowels of the earth thrust this forth through its surface. It is found red in its first coagulation, and in it lie hid all the flowers and colours of the minerals. Much has been written about it by the philosophers, for it is of a cold and moist nature, and agrees with the element of water. _

"Oh yeah, real treasure," I scoffed after reading the first paragraph about three times. "I can't understand any of it! 'Nature begets a mineral in the bowels of the earth.' Just spit it out in English!"

I then began flipping through the book, looking for a transmutation circle I could copy, but quickly found out that there weren't any transmutation circles in the entire book. I angrily slammed the book shut and left it on an end table to try and find another book that would hopefully be a little more helpful.

The next book I picked was _Summaium Philosophicum, _by a Nicolai Flamelli. The name reminded me a little too strongly of Nicolas Flamel from my world. I knew from being a Harry Potter fan that he really had existed and claimed to have created a Philosopher's Stone, so I was curious to see what 'Nicolai Flamelli' had to say on alchemy.

_Summarium Philosophicum,_

_  
Nicolai Flamelli._

_Wer da will die Erkäntnis der Metallen_

_und gewisse Wissenschaft_

_wie sie transmutiret und eins in das ander verkehret werde_

_erlangen_

_der muß vor allen Dingen erkennen_

_worauß und wie sie in ihren Mineren formiret werden. Also _

_und auf daß man nicht irre_

"Oh, come on!" I cried angrily as I slammed the book shut. It looked like the German language of my world had been used to write the entire book. I had taken three years of German, but I knew I wasn't up to the task of translating the book first into English and then into common language.

"Isn't there an _Alchemy for Dummies_?" I moaned as I returned once again to the shelves. I quickly ran my finger over the spines of the books, looking for something that looked more promising than the last two books I had picked. My finger finally brushed across the book _Beginner's Alchemy_, and I eagerly pulled it out, remembering that it was the book the Elrics had first learned from. If seven year olds could read and understand it, then I surely I could.

Right?

I sighed and settled into the armchair again, opening the book with a slight wince at the thought of yet another book of mumbo-jumbo. If practically learning another language was what it took to learn alchemy, then I wasn't going to do it. After all, I just wanted to go home, so there wasn't much point to learning alchemy anyway.

_The first step to learning alchemy is perfecting your skills at drawing a perfect circle. If you cannot do this, then you will not be able to go very far at all in alchemy. But don't worry if your first circle does not turn out perfectly, because it takes some people longer than others to draw a perfect circle. Of course, some people are never able to draw a perfect circle, and therefore unable to practice alchemy very well. Do not stress out if this is the case for you, some people are just more naturally able to do alchemy than others. _

I nearly cried in relief at the fact that I had finally found an alchemy book that seemed to speak English. I carefully reread over the paragraph again and then grabbed a piece of chalk out of the box before crouching on the floor once more.

I knew without measuring it that my first circle was definitely not anywhere near perfect. I could tell with just my bare eyes that it was lopsided and misshapen. I scowled at the circle and quickly wiped the floor clean with the rag. I then quickly pressed the chalk against the floor again and made another circle.

My second circle was better than the first, but not by much. I could still tell with my bare eyes that I had accidentally made it more oval-shaped than circular. I quickly grabbed the rag and wiped the chalk off the floor again.

I tried to do it again, and came out with yet another misshapen circle. I kept drawing circle after circle until I felt like I had drawn at least twenty of them, but none had been perfect. How was drawing a 'perfect' circle even humanly possible?

I pressed the chalk against the floor one last time, wishing desperately that it would actually work for once. Unlike all the other times, I decided to close my eyes and draw the circle quickly as if that would somehow alleviate the pain.

To my great surprise, when I opened my eyes again, I saw that I had actually managed to draw a decent circle. I found a ruler in the library, and after measuring the circle repeatedly, I found that it really was a perfect circle. I had no idea how I had finally managed to draw a perfect circle with my bare hands, but somehow, I had.

For some reason, Izumi never came in that day to give me chores like she usually did. I had a feeling that she knew I was practicing my alchemy and didn't want to disturb me, but I had no desire to find out if that was true.

After hours of practice and getting a sore back and neck, I finally had a finished transmutation circle on the floor in front of me. Specifically, a transmutation circle for manipulating wood, since the floor was made of wood and I figured it'd be the easiest to work with. It was much smaller than Izumi's, and I guessed that was because Izumi had made a special circle that would work well with most of the materials in the room. My circle was much smaller, in fact, it wasn't much bigger than my head.

I clapped my hands to the circle with a slight grin, and felt the pain in my neck fade away as the soothing warmth spread over me. I then focused my thoughts quickly on a wooden cat sculpture I had once gotten at a craft show. I had always admired the cat for how it captured the poised muscles and vigilant expression of a cat watching a butterfly in the air above it, and had ended up buying it because I couldn't bear the thought of leaving it.

Suddenly, I felt a jerk in the power from the transmutation circle, almost like an electrical shock. Even though my eyes were, closed, I could immediately tell it was from a mistake I had made in the transmutation circle, and exactly where the mistake was.

I opened my eyes again as the transmutation stopped, and saw that the cat sculpture I had been working on was much more crude than the one I had bought in my world, and the edges were slightly wavy. I somehow knew that the wavy edges had come from the mistake in the transmutation circle.

I carefully pulled the cat out of circle and placed it to the side, wincing slightly at how it had turned out. It was nothing like what I had wanted it to be. I then grabbed the chalk and found the mistake: one tiny forgotten line nearby the edge of the circle that had managed to throw the entire transmutation off. I scowled at it, and immediately fixed the offense.

"Rebecca, you should be getting to bed soon," I heard Izumi say. I looked up from my transmutation circle and saw that she was standing by the doorway, her arms crossed and a slightly amused grin pulling at her lips.

"Why? What time is it?" I asked, managing to pull myself up into a standing position. I then suddenly realized just how sore I was. it felt like I had been curled up in the fetal position the entire day, leading to soreness practically everywhere.

"It's almost eleven o'clock at night," Izumi said, and I felt like my eyes would pop out of their sockets. Usually I tried to get to be by ten, maybe ten thirty. "So what did you make?" Izumi asked me. I reached down and grabbed the deformed cat off the ground.

"Just this stupid cat," I mumbled. "It didn't turn out very good." Before I could protest, Izumi had grabbed the cat out of my arms and was critically looking it over. I felt like crawling into a hole and dying there, despite my sore body.

"Not half bad," Izumi said after a minute, making me look up in surprise. "I know you're disappointed that it didn't come out as you would like it, but this does take quite a bit of practice. And you've got a nice artistic eye, too. Once you perfect this cat, I'm sure it will look very nice," Izumi told me. I felt myself smile slightly, but looked down at the ground. "Now go to bed!" she said, quickly changing to a sterner voice. "You're a young growing girl, you need to rest!" I nodded and hurried up to my room.

When I walked into my room and saw the usual nightgown sitting on my bed, I realized just how tired I was. I quickly changed into it, rejoicing at the thought of a soft bed. Just before I turned out the lights, I noticed that Mason had fetched Ed's journal from the island like I had asked him to and put it on the dresser. I then collapsed on the bed and fell asleep almost instantly.

* * *

I slowly opened my eyes to complete darkness and realized that it was late at night. I managed to locate a sliver of moonlight coming in from the window to look at my watch. It informed me that it was just a few minutes past midnight. I laughed softly to myself, wondering if my body had somehow known that I had just turned seventeen.

"Happy Birthday, Rebecca," I whispered softly to myself before settling back into my pillows and closing my eyes. I wished silently to myself that something special would happen in the next twenty-four hours, whether anyone knew it was my birthday or not.

Once my eyes were closed, I found myself losing brain capacity quickly. Although I wasn't falling asleep immediately, I definitely didn't want to open my eyes anytime soon. It felt like I was wrapped in a dark cloud, barely connected to the world around me. Everything was so silent and still.

And then a pair of voices and footsteps on the stairs suddenly interrupted it. I couldn't quite place the voices, but I knew they were familiar to me. There was just something about them that I knew so well. Two male voices, I knew that, but they weren't my brothers, so who could they be?

"Brother, are you sure we shouldn't wake up Teacher?" the first voice whispered worriedly. "Don't you think she want to know if we were here? I mean, we are kinda breaking into her house…"

"We're not breaking into her house, ya worrywart," the second voice laughed lightly. I knew that I somehow knew that voice from somewhere, but I just couldn't quite place it. "We're like family, we can't break into her house. And of course she'd want to know, but I'm exhausted and I just wanna go to sleep. You tell her. You're the one who's acting all jumpy."

"But I don't want to wake her up without you!" the first voice whispered back anxiously.

"And I don't want to wake her up right now, period," the second voce said firmly. "Look, I'm going to bed right now. We'll surprise everyone in the morning when they wake up, okay? Then they won't be mad at us for disturbing them in the middle of the night."

"Okay," the second voice said slowly as I heard my bedroom door creak open. I was half expecting light to stream into the room, but then realized that all the lights in the house were out, even the ones in the hall. I heard a pair of heavy footsteps slowly walk towards me, followed by another pair of loud clanking footsteps. It was so quiet that I could even hear that the non-metallic footsteps had a slightly different sound to each one, as if their owner was limping, but not quite.

I suddenly felt a weight press against my hip and my eyes flew open as I sat up with an indignant squeak. The pressure was immediately released and I heard the footsteps walk quickly away from me. Someone had just sat on me!

"There's someone in here," I heard the second voice from before say in surprise, and then the lights suddenly turned on. I winced and immediately closed my eyes, not yet used to the bright light. When I opened them again, I found myself looking at a very surprised but still angry Edward Elric. In. The. Flesh.

"You're in my bed," he said simply, crossing his arms and looking expectantly at me. I blinked my eyes a few times, still sleepy and not completely understanding what was going on.

"Brother, that's not nice!" I heard Al scold, and looked over to the doorway to see him standing by the light switch, his large fingers still poised over it. "I'm very sorry, miss," he said quickly to me. "Brother and I will just go in another room and let you sleep in peace."

"Says who?" Ed said angrily, snapping his head to look over at Al. "She stole my bed! I'm not going to just _leave_! It's _my_ bed! It's a matter of principle!"

"Bro-ther," Al sighed exasperatedly. "You were just saying that you were exhausted, but now you won't leave this girl alone because 'it's a matter of principle'? It is Teacher's house, she can have other people stay in the rooms if she wants."

"You traitor!" Ed snapped back angrily. "You're my brother! You're supposed to be on my side! She stole my bed!"

"I'm not supposed to be on your side if it's completely idiotic!" Al said wearily. Even if I didn't know Fullmetal Alchemist, I had a feeling that I would have still known that he had to put up with this sort of thing on a regular basis. "It's just a bed, Brother. And she didn't _steal_ it, Teacher is obviously letting her stay here. Now can we please just let the poor girl sleep and go in another room?"

"No!" Ed said stubbornly. "I told you, Al, it's a matter of principle!"

"What the hell is going on in here?" a sudden voice jerked them out of their conversation as the door flew open, revealing Izumi, who had either slept in her clothes or gotten dressed very quickly. "What are you two doing here?" she snapped, looking at Ed and Al.

"Apparently they've been having some trouble with the trains recently, so our train got rerouted to Dublith," Al explained calmly. "We just got here a few minutes ago."

"Well that's fine," Izumi snapped back. "But that doesn't mean you have to wake up Rebecca. She's been working hard all day and needs her sleep, and then you two come in here like a pair of babbling baboons that could wake up practically anyone."

"Sorry, Teacher," Al mumbled while looking down at his feet. Ed just crossed his arms and continued to stare at me angrily.

"Is there a problem, Edward?" Izumi asked, and he spun his head around to glare angrily at her instead.

"She's in my bed," he said simply.

"Thank you for that excellent observation," Izumi sighed.

"That's where I sleep."

"And if _King Edward_ is not pleased with his lodgings, then he can always stay at the local inn," Izumi said simply. "Rebecca stays. It's as simple as that. Sleep in another bed, or stay somewhere else," Izumi said finally before walking out of the room. Ed snorted at her retreating back, but just turned his head so that he was looking at the dresser instead. I could see his eyes widen considerably when he saw his journal lying on top of it innocently.

"Did you read this?!" he demanded, picking up the journal and thrusting it in my face. I quickly shook my head from side to side, my hair whipping with the motion. Ed seemed to consider me for a minute, then narrowed his eyes and walked huffily out of the room, holding the journal tightly to his chest.

"Sorry about Brother," Al sighed, turning back to look at me. "I think he's just really tired. He's kinda had a long day, and then the trains being delayed definitely didn't help his attitude."

"It's okay," I sighed, leaning back into my pillows. I was already feeling tired again, even more worn out from the episode with Ed, even though I hadn't said anything. "Michael gets a lot like that when he's tired too. Usually it helps if he reads before he goes to bed."

"Brother likes to read before bed too," Al laughed slightly. I nodded with a slight yawn, feeling my eyes start to slide shut despite the fact that Alphonse Elric was in the room talking to me. "But I'll just let you go back to sleep," Al said quickly, noticing my tired expression. I nodded gratefully and he walked back out of the room, closing the door behind him. I was asleep again in half a minute.

* * *

"Hey, wake up," a voice said above me. I moaned unhappily as I felt a finger jab my shoulder sharply and grabbed at my pillow. The person didn't seem to take that as a hint, however, and kept jabbing at my shoulder. I slowly opened my eyes and found myself looking at Ed for the second time that day. "Teacher says to come down and eat lunch with the living."

"Mmph… What time is it?" I asked him groggily, pushing myself into a sitting position. I noticed that sunlight was now streaming in the window, so it obviously couldn't be that early.

"Twelve thirty," Ed told me with a slight smirk. "Even I woke up before you. So of course, who gets stuck coming up here to wake you up? Me," he sighed and I quickly pulled myself out of bed.

"Look, maybe we got off on the wrong foot last night," I said slowly. Ed rolled his eyes at the comment, but didn't interrupt me, so I continued, "Why don't we forget about that and just… start over, okay?" I held out my hand, and Ed grudgingly shook it.

"Can I at least have the bed tonight?" Ed asked me. I couldn't stop myself from laughing at the comment before I nodded in agreement. Ed then let go of my hand quickly and left to go down to the kitchen. I grinned, grateful that he seemed to be in a nicer mood than before, and then quickly followed behind him.

"Good morning, Rebecca!" Al chirruped happily when I walked into the room. I was momentarily surprised at the fact that he knew my name, but then realized that he had either remembered from the night before or Izumi had told him while I was asleep.

"Mornin'," I mumbled, quickly sitting down at the table. I grabbed one of the grilled cheese sandwiches from the table. It was a strange thing to have for breakfast, but I reminded myself that it was really time for lunch by now. Besides, it tasted pretty good, and I'd had even stranger food for breakfast.

"How old are you?" Ed asked suddenly. I stopped eating my sandwich, surprised by the sudden question and looked over at Ed. He had one elbow resting on the table and was looking me over critically.

"I just turned seventeen today," I answered simply. "Why?" I asked him. Ed just shrugged and instead decided to focus his attention on his own grilled cheese sandwich.

"It's your birthday today?" Al asked me quickly, and I nodded with a grin. "Happy birthday!"

"Thanks!" I grinned back at him. I suddenly realized that Ed and Al had showed up just in time for my birthday, almost as if they were my present. I laughed slightly at the thought. No way could anybody ever give me a birthday gift that could compare to the Elric brothers.

"We should have a proper birthday party," Mason said with a grin, and Al nodded enthusiastically. I smiled back at him happily. Al barely even knew me, and he wanted to make sure I had a good birthday.

"Well, we can't have a birthday party with the birthday girl still in her pajamas," Izumi said simply. "Why don't you go upstairs and change into something nice? And not that dirty Get Caught Reading shirt."

"Um…" I said nervously, not sure how to explain to her that the 'dirty Get Caught Reading shirt' was all I had. "Well, we don't have to have a nice party or anything. I'm fine with just a casual day inside."

"Oh, I see," Izumi said slowly, and then snapped her head to look at Ed instead. "Take her out to buy some nice clothes and bring her back in a couple of hours. I'll bake a nice cake while you're gone and we'll have a nice party when you guys get back."

"What? Why me?" Ed cried out indignantly, nearly spitting out a mouthful of juice. I tried to stop myself from smiling, but failed miserably and just ended up letting myself enjoy the sweetness of the moment. Somehow, Ed always got stuck taking the OCs of fangirls out shopping, and now it was my turn to enjoy the fun.

"Because you're the State Alchemist with more money than a boy your age should have," Izumi said simply. Ed scowled at her and crossed his arms. "And don't you be stingy either. You've got plenty of money, so let her spend as much as she wants. It is her birthday, after all."

"Fine," Ed snapped before standing up and grabbing his red coat off the back of the chair. "Al, you're coming with me, right?" Al nodded quickly and also stood up. Ed then turned to look at me. "Well, go get dressed," he said to me. I nodded and quickly finished off my grilled cheese. "We don't have all day. Hurry up."

Five minutes later I was back in my familiar cargo pants and Get Caught Reading shirt, with my jeans jacket on top in an attempt to stay warm. I walked briskly down the street, with Al to my left and Ed trailing behind us.

"So, do you guys know any good clothing stores?" I asked, looking back at Ed. Ed shrugged, looked at the sky, and jammed his hands in his pockets. I sighed and turned back around. When I spotted a clothing store to my left, I immediately walked inside, the two brothers trailing silently behind me. I had never gone shopping for clothes with two boys my age, so I figured it was normal behavior.

"Woah," I said, suddenly freezing at the entrance of the store and staring at a mannequin wearing Ed's trademark outfit, except the jacket was white and didn't have the symbol on the back. A sign next to the model read, "Jacket personalized for only 2,000 sens!"

"It's- It's your outfit," I stammered, turning to look at Ed. He just rolled his eyes slightly and sighed.

"Well, duh," he said simply. "I did have to get it somewhere you know. Clothes don't grow on trees. I didn't know they were still pushing that outfit. When I bought it they were seconds away from discontinuing it because it was so unpopular." I snorted slightly, making Ed turn and glare at me. I grinned as innocently as I cold muster and hurried to the back of the shop.

"Why are you all the way back here?" Al asked, eyeing the clothing racks as he walked over to me. I already had a pile of clothes heaped over my right arm. "You know the more popular stuff is at the front, right?" he asked me, lightly touching one of his large hands to a sign that said the clothes on that rack were up to seventy percent off.

"I know," I said quickly, picking a blue blouse off the rack. "But the best deals are always at the back of the store. Sometimes you can get perfectly good shirts for cheap just because they're not in style anymore. What do you think?" I added, holding up the shirt in front of me for him to see.

"It matches your eyes," Al said after a quick glance. "Pretty. But you do know that Brother has plenty of money, right? You don't have to go bargain hunting." I added the blue blouse to my growing pile of clothes and moved on to the next rack.

"Yeah, I guess," I said dismissively. "I guess I'm just used to bargain hunting. And besides, it makes you feel good when you figure out how much money you saved just by buying things that were out of style, or old, or-" I paused and pulled a purple version of Ed's coat off the rack. "Damaged!" I finished with a gleeful smile before quickly adding the coat to my pile of clothes. "I can't believe they have a purple one in my size! Purple is my favorite color!" I told Al happily. "And for only-" I paused and checked the tag. "625 sens!" I did some quick math in my head and figured that it was equal to about five or six American dollars. "I have to go try this stuff on," I told Al before excitedly hurrying off to the dressing room.

Once in the dressing room, I hurriedly sorted through the clothes before picking out an outfit I liked. I set it off to the side and quickly pulled off my clothes. I was just about to try on the pants when I paused and looked at my reflection in the mirror.

I knew my appearance had changed when I had first seen my reflection in the windows near the post office, but now I knew I had really changed. I hadn't spent much time on changing over the past few days, so I hadn't really noticed just how my body had changed. My figure had been decent in my world, but now I was in the world where, according to Arakawa, women were "Vavoom!"

"Oh yeah, that's realistic," I scowled at my reflection while pinching a bit of fat by my belly. Either my memory was playing tricks on me, or I had less fat than when I was in my world. Meanwhile, my chest seemed to have stayed the same size, if not grown slightly larger. I paused for a moment, and then shook a fist at the mirror angrily. "I don't want to be a stinkin' Barbie doll!" I ranted angrily. I frowned at my reflection for a few more minutes before realizing that it wouldn't do anything and turned back to my clothes.

"What do you think?" I asked Al as I walked out of the dressing room and spun in a quick circle. I was wearing a simple white t-shirt with a v-neck and tan corduroy pants with it. Just for kicks, I had added the purple coat on top. The entire outfit was comfortable, but did manage to show off some curves.

"Well, you kind of look like, like, well, Brother," Al said slowly. I cocked my head and looked down at my outfit.

"No," I said thoughtfully, considering my choice in clothes. "He wears black clothes under his jacket. And his pants are leather. And his hair is longer and blonder, and I have glasses," I said simply, crossing my arms across my chest.

"Yeah, I guess," Al said with a slightly amused tone to his voice. "But he does wear boots kind of like that, and it just… I don't know, looks similar." I looked down at my work boots thoughtfully. They did look a little similar, but they were different. Maybe my clothes were a little similar to Ed's outfit, but I had sort if put my own spin on it.

"I guess," I said slowly with a sigh. "But it's not like I'm going to wear this all the time. Just sometimes." I slowly pulled off the jacket and looked at it. "But I'm going to wear this a lot. I love purple!" I declared, making Al laugh.

"Are you ready yet?" another voice asked, and Al and I both turned to see Ed leaning against a clothing rack lazily. "This is boring. I want to go back and have cake. Hopefully Teacher made chocolate," he said as a dreamy look crossed his face and he hungrily licked his lips.

"I'd prefer vanilla," I said simply. "Vanilla with chocolate frosting." Ed rolled his eyes and gave me a you-have-no-idea-what-you-are-missing-you-insane-person. "Don't get me wrong, I like chocolate cake," I said quickly. "I just like vanilla better. Though… My mom used to make this amazing double layer chocolate cake, with a layer of butter chocolate frosting in the middle, and all around. She made the best chocolate cakes," I sighed.

"Could you just hurry up?" Ed said crossly. "The sooner you finish, the sooner we can go back and have cake." I nodded eagerly and pulled the purple coat back on. I saw Ed straighten slightly and quirk an eyebrow, but he didn't say anything, so I just hurried back into the dressing room.

After hurriedly trying on the rest of my clothes and letting Ed pay for them at the counter, we were back out on the street, this time loaded down with shopping bags and heading back to Izumi's house. Instead of sulking behind me and Al, this time Ed was leading the way while I lugged my clothes behind him.

"Are you sure you don't want any help?" Al asked worriedly, reaching out a hand to grab one of the shopping bags. I quickly shrugged the bag away from his grip and continued on at a quicker pace.

"I am perfectly capable of taking care of myself," I said quickly, even though my arms were starting to ache a little. "I can carry seven cheesecakes without my boyfriend's help, I think I can handle carrying a few bags of clothes."

"You have a boyfriend?" Al asked suddenly, making me nearly drop the bags I was carrying. I tried not to show my surprise and kept walking.

"Yes, what's so wrong with that?" I said simply. "Even girls like me can have boyfriends. Now let's go home and have that cake," I said, and then suddenly realized I had quickened my pace enough to catch up to Ed. He paused and looked over me thoughtfully.

"Are you absolutely sure you're seventeen?" he asked slowly. I furrowed my eyebrows and nodded, confused by the strange question until I noticed Ed's angry scowl.

"Oh," I said slowly, a grin creeping across my face. "This is about height, isn't it? How old are you, Ed? Seventeen? Do you not like the fact that a girl the same age as you is taller than you?" I asked. I had never realized just how short Ed really was. He was about a whole head shorter than me, at least.

"WHO ARE YOU CALLING A DOG SO SMALL THAT ITS OWN FLEAS CAN'T EVEN USE IT AS A PET?!?!" Ed ranted at me. I jumped back just as Al grabbed his brother around the waist. I tried to keep a straight face as Ed continued struggling to grab me, but eventually I gave in and fell to the ground in a fit of giggles.

"Well, that was a new one," I finally said as I managed to pull myself to my feet, wiping a tear from one eye. Ed glared at me, though he had tired himself out and finally given up on trying to kill me.

"Don't feel bad, Ed," I said with a grin as we continued walking. "My father is insanely tall. And my mother is insanely short. I'm just the average," I told him with a grin. Ed muttered something under his breath that was too soft for me to catch.

"That must be a strange relationship," Al said as he nervously scratched the back of his head. I could tell that he was just waiting for Ed to lung at me again. Ed did look ready to kill something.

"Oh, it is," I laughed. "My mom likes to make my dad stand on the stairs so he's shorter and she can kiss him properly. But they really do love each other. I'm lucky to have parents like them."

"If you're so lucky, then why'd you leave them?" Ed suddenly snapped at me. I flinched, noticing that his hands were balled into fists. "Have you ever thought that maybe you leaving could impact them seriously? Or are you just too stuck in your own world to care about the people around you?!"

"I- I-" I stammered, but Ed just huffed at me, spun on his heel and stormed away. I could hear Al sigh behind me. I knew I couldn't say anything about Hohenheim to him, even though I knew that was the real problem with Ed. But Al didn't think I knew anything about their parents, so I had to keep quiet in order to stay innocuous.

"Sorry about Brother," Al said nervously as the small blond figure disappeared into the distance. "I don't think he… I mean, he's just been a little…"

"He's absolutely right," I said softly, and I could hear the clank of Al looking at me in surprise. "I've been too wrapped up in my own world lately. That's not what families are about. They're supposed to look out for each other. I got to get home and make things right."

"Just where exactly is your family?" Al asked me. "Maybe Brother and I will be going near there, and we could get you a train ticket."

"It's not anywhere near here," I laughed bitterly. "I'm a long way from home." I paused and looked up at the sky. It was a crisp blue that I had always loved to see on warm fall days.

"Now let's go home and have that cake," I added quickly, trying to brighten the mood. I'm sure Ed's already beaten us back there thanks to the thought of cake."

I grinned at Al and started jogging down the road, trying my best to hold on to the shopping bags I was carrying. I could hear him clanking quickly behind me after only a few steps, and looked back over my shoulder at him and laughed merrily. He hesitated for a moment before he started laughing with me, not sure what I was even laughing at. I was actually laughing at the fact that I was in Amestris, running with Alphonse Elric down a street in Dublith. If anyone had told me I would be doing that a week earlier, I would have thought they were delusional.

**Ahhhhh… I had a traumatic experience with this chapter. I had twelve pages of it typed out when my computer had a seizure. I thought the file was completely lost. I was actually crying real, physical tears I was so upset. But then I found the file again and all was well in the land. The end! **

**Oh, and I put that Rebecca had a boyfriend in this chapter because back when I originally wrote this, it was based off an actual original day I had that summer, and back then I did have a boyfriend. However, those of you who know me know that I no longer have a boyfriend. Just figured I'd keep it consistent with the time frame I originally put it in. **

**Oh, and those alchemy books that were in here are real. (No, I don't own them or Fullmetal Alchemist. Sigh…) '****Nicolai Flamelli' was actually the real Nicolas Flamel. Man, alchemic texts are hard to understand. It's like a whole other language! –bangs head on table-**

**Thanks again for reading this! Try to catch what I accidentally did with this chapter's title! ;) **

_**Chapter Four**_

**Devil-Speaker:** Yeah… I'm glad you actually feel sorry for her instead of going "Oh, you're in the FMA world, so just suck it up, ya luzer!!!"

**tomato sauce:** Meep! Yes, yes, anything you say, preciousss… LotR nerds unite!

**YourFavouitePlushie:** Yeah, it was rather different, wasn't it? Rebecca didn't even last a whole day. –sweatdrop- You're right, she isn't some super powers anime character, and yet she's in the FMA world, and none of the rest of us ordinary people are. –sniffle-

Thank you so much! I'll try to keep up with updates now!

**Arktos:** ARKTOS likes MY story?! –falls- Thank you so much!! Yes, of course I remember you! And I read the latest chapters of Stranger Than Fiction, I just haven't had enough time on the computer with the working internet to really leave reviews. The laptop is still working, but it's having trouble with going online. Ppbt! –crosses arms-

Anyway, yes, I could see Envy as nice. Which is probably why I wrote that in there. Really, I could have had Lust do it too, but Rebecca wouldn't be as thrown off and would probably end up just poking Lust in the eyes, or something like that. Before running like a madwoman, of course. ;)

Please come back down to earth soon, I LOVE constructive criticism!

Yes, asthma sucks. Pity me. I heard on the news this morning that apparently girls with asthma are more likely to be overweight and not drink enough milk. What's up with that? Luckily for me, while I do have a little belly fat, I am NOT overweight, thank you very much, and I usually drink MORE milk than the recommended amount every day. So I guess I'm not the average asthmatic girl.

Thanks for the review, and the fav, and- and- everything!! –falls again-

**Renneh:** W00t! Ed and Al!! Yeah, I suppose I set a record for OC being sent to the island and brought back the quickest. –sigh-

No, I don't PLAN on hooking myself up with Ed. –walks off to corner to giggle hysterically- Like THAT would happen. I realize that this is currently following the usual trend of OC and Ed hating each other and then slowly growing closer until they end up having raging hot sex all over the room. Not going to happen with me and Ed. –sigh- We're both stubborn, so we're obviously going to butt heads a bit. I herby promise that Ed and Rebecca's will never go past friendship, at best. Okay? Not going to ruin the fic. ;)

Here's the update, thanks again!

**agent000:**Woods? Hmm… I guess that could work for Ed too… The forest represents his dark, entangled past… Lol, I'm so deep. And I'm not surprised most people bring up Sylvan Learning Center; they have so many durn commercials!

Well, I suppose you could say that I do believe in 'ghosts' since I'm a Christian and believe in heaven. And I guess that could even explain why the thought of them being on Earth scares/worries me a bit. So the thought of humans without bodies doesn't scare me, it's just the fact that all the ghost stories I've heard have to deal with the ghost having felt unfulfilled somehow when they died and then they have to walk the Earth until they fulfill that. Sounds like a pretty crummy way to spend a chunk of your afterlife, if you ask me.

Is NaNoWriMo the thing where you have to write an entire book in a month? I actually have a couple friends doing that. As for me, well, I just know I can't write an entire novel in one month. It's just impossible for me. I couldn't even finish New Neighbors/Strange Arrival in a YEAR! Lol. So I just knew that wasn't going to happen and decided not to try. Not to be pessimistic or anything. I'm still writing my own story; I'm just not going to do it in one month. But it WILL be published someday!! XO I hope, I hope…

**BlueRose.xoxo:** Oh, wow. I can't believe you had the strength to stay up that late and read about thirty pages of fanfic. I know I wouldn't be able to do that. Thanks for your determination to read this. :D

Thanks, I'm glad you liked the idea of Ed carving his promise into the wall. I guess it was kind of inspired by the whole "Don't forget" thing in his watch, and another story (not fanfic) where kids who had been in a certain bedroom had carved their name on the wall under the bed.

Thanks so much for reading and reviewing! Here's the next chapter!

**DESTROY-THE-HORMONES:** You don't eat no meat? What do you mean you DON"T EAT NO MEAT?! …That's okay, I cook lamb. :D Wait… I don't know how to cook lamb. Holy muffins and mushrooms, we're all gonna die!!!

I'll help you kill the male species:) Well, except for my dad and brothers… I'm kinda attached to them…

Yeah, being a teenager sucks. I eat all sorts of junk, and yet I still got curves to spare. Why won't my stupid boobs stop growing?! I'd be happy with something in the area of like, A or B cup, but nooooooo, I've got to have boobs from here to Kentucky! –shakes fist-

**Zilo's Blue Pen:** -faints- A-maz-ing review! –hugs Zilo- Both long and made me laugh! Yay for rambling!

Yes, unfortunately for her, Rebecca is the fangirl in Ed's world, and so therefore she is going to receive plenty of attention. As for Envy… well, he's not _using_ her, per se, more like _manipulating_ her. So he's not being nice just to be nice, you're right about that, but I'm not telling you why. Just wait until the other homunculi jump in, then things will really start to get fun.

Izumi was trying to teach Rebecca to take care of herself. She kind of picked up on the fact that Rebecca isn't really used to taking care of herself, so she thought that the island survival challenge would do her some good, even if she didn't decide to later become Izumi's apprentice.

Yeah, asthma sucks. When I was somewhere around five years old, my parents decided to surprise me with a trip to Disneyworld. I ended up freaking out and bouncing off the walls, leading to an asthma attack, which led to the trip being delayed because I was in the hospital. I was a very disappointed girl, but at least we got to go later.

Thanks so much! I'll try to write quickly!

**CrazedNeko:** Well, I mentioned in the first chapter that Rebecca had an inhaler in her backpack, but I don't think that most people caught that. Good to know you're still reading:D

Happy Thanksgiving to you too! Turkeeeeeeey!!! –attacks bird with giant carnivorous fangs-


	6. Chapter 6

**_If there are any boys out there reading this (which I highly doubt anyway), you are warned that you may not want to read some of the first section. Any negative side effects inflicted if you do not follow this advice are your own doing. XD_**

**_Chapter Six – Concerning Cramps, Languages, and Suitcases_**

I slowly trudged back into the Curtis household, exhausted after racing Al halfway home. As soon as I had felt the slightest hint of asthma in my lungs I had stopped, remembering all too well what had happened on the island with Mason. Al and I had managed to catch up with Ed, and all three of us finally walked back into the Curtis household together.

As soon as we walked through the door, the smell of chocolate hit us like a ton of bricks. Ed grinned as he took off his red coat and threw it over the back of a nearby chair. He then turned to look at me with a triumphant smirk.

"Ha. Chocolate beats vanilla," Ed said simply to me. I grinned back at him, barely able to keep myself from laughing.

"Well, then I guess I'll just have to suffer through it," I replied, pulling a fake pout. Al laughed at the comment, and I could barely see the edges of Ed's lips twitch. I didn't want to admit it to Ed, but chocolate cake was sounding more and more appealing.

"Hey, it's the birthday girl!" Mason said cheerfully, stepping out from the kitchen. I grinned back at him happily. Somehow, it was always impossible for me to not be happy on my birthday. "Izumi says she wants you to go get changed into some nice clothes and you two to set the table." He looked over at Ed and Al as he said the last sentence. Ed sighed and went into the kitchen with Al following him while I hurried upstairs.

I quickly dumped my bags onto the bed and sorted through the clothes I had bought. I then realized just how much I had bought. Even though almost all of it had come from the clearance section, it still probably cost Ed a good amount of money. And while he may have bought the clothes for me because Izumi made him, it was still a nice thing to do.

I pulled out a simple blue skirt and a white blouse that had flowers stitched on it. It was a comfortable outfit that I knew would look nice, but not too formal. Luckily, I had shaved my legs earlier, so I didn't have to ask Izumi any embarrassing questions.

I quickly changed out of the old clothes I was wearing and into my new outfit with a grin. I couldn't remember the last time I got to wear brand newclothes. Usually I ended up getting my clothes second-hand because it was cheaper. Besides, it wasn't like there were horrible things wrong with second-hand clothes. I'd almost forgotten what it felt like to buy so many clothes at once. I then slipped my feet into a pair of white sandals and hurried downstairs.

"Well, you cleaned up rather nicely," Izumi commented, looking up from frosting the cake as I entered the dining room. Ed was already sitting at the table and watching the chocolate cake with two very large eyes. I laughed slightly and watched Izumi go back to frosting the cake.

"Yes, you look nice, Rebecca," Al chimed in cheerfully. I smiled at him before turning and sitting in one of the chairs around the dining table. I could suddenly understand why Ed was staring at the cake so intently. It was glistening and practically glowing in the light of the room. I sighed happily and rested my chin on the table.

"Cut it out, both of you!" Izumi snapped suddenly. Ed and I both jerked backwards and smiled nervously at her, trying our best to look innocent. We then turned and looked at each other, realizing that our reaction to Izumi was the same. I playfully stuck my tongue out at Ed, and could barely catch the faintest of smiles hover across his lips.

"Well, should we sing to Rebecca?" Izumi asked, finishing off the cake with a swirl. I licked my lips hungrily, looking forward to having a slice.

"No," Ed and Al both answered simultaneously. I looked over at them both in surprise, wondering why they wouldn't want to sing. Ed crossed his arms and looked away from me, while Al looked down at the ground nervously. I suddenly realized that if Al sang, it would echo in a way that wouldn't usually occur when someone was in armor. Ed and Al hadn't told me about their secret, even if I technically knew it from my world.

But Ed was a bit more of a mystery to me. I knew he could sing, and even sing well, and yet he was refusing to sing. Eventually I decided that Ed had to be shy about singing for people. After all, he barely ever sang, and I figured that Ed would be the type of person to be shy about something like that. I smiled silently to myself and shook my head.

"It's okay, you don't have to sing," I said quickly to Izumi, and I could see the two brothers visibly relax. "Why don't we just eat that cake instead?"

"I agree to that," Ed said eagerly, his eyes only for the cake. I practically laughed out loud at his enthusiastic expression. Izumi sighed at Ed, but began to cut the cake anyway. I received the first piece, but patiently waited until everyone had a slice and then started digging into my piece of cake.

I sighed dreamily and closed my eyes as the first bite slid down my throat. The cake was absolute chocolate heaven. Izumi had really managed to bake a wonderful cake, enough to make men give up countries, I figured. The feeling even reminded me a little of when I had done alchemy just the day before.

I ate the cake slowly, which surprised me a bit. I knew that usually I would be practically inhaling a cake that good. Sure, not as quickly as Ed was wolfing down his cake (It reminded me a little of the cookie monster on Sesame Street), but I could eat food rather quickly when it was good.

About halfway through my piece of cake, I suddenly clutched at my stomach as a wave of pain washed over me. I then stood up and rushed off to the bathroom, ignoring the worried calls behind me.

As soon as I got to the bathroom I realized what my problem was. A single deep red spot sat – almost proudly, I might add – in the center of my underwear.

"Noooooo," I moaned softly, bending my head down and clutching my hands into fists. "Why'd you have to come? Don't you know that no one gets periods around the Elric brothers?" I realized it was stupid, trying to talk to my period, but I did it anyway. I liked to talk to plenty of inanimate objects, why not also talk to monthly cycles? A sudden metallic knock on the door interrupted me out of my thoughts.

"Rebecca? Are you okay?" Al asked from the other side of the door.

"I'm fine!" I said quickly, hurriedly pulling up my skirt again. "Really! Sometimes my stomach just does crazy flips!" Which was actually true, my stomach did do crazy flips from time to time; it just wasn't the real problem at that point. I then quickly washed my hands and rubbed the towel over them before opening the door and doing my best attempt to smile at Al.

"Are you sure you're okay?" Al repeated, and I nodded quickly. He seemed to consider me carefully, but didn't seem to find any cause to mistrust my answer, so we walked back downstairs together.

If I listened carefully, I could hear the echoing ring to Al's footsteps as he walked. My thoughts drifted to the idea of how Al was only sixteen, a year younger than me. He and Ed really were just kids. They didn't deserve to have all these problems. I knew that they would never be able to get back their lost childhood, no matter what they did. After what they had been through, nothing could truly go back to the way it had been before.

I hesitated when we arrived back at the table. It seemed that Al hadn't been the only one worried about me, considering that everyone except Ed was watching me. And even Ed flicked his eyes towards me for a split second before looking back to his cake.

"Um, Mrs. Curtis?" I said hesitantly, nearly kicking myself for the formal tone I kept adopting around FMA characters. First I was calling Roy "sir" and now Izumi "Mrs. Curtis" when they were, well, Roy and Izumi. I wondered absentmindedly if I was going to end up calling Riza "Ma'am."

"I, um, have a slight problem," I stammered, trying to figure out how to let Izumi know I had a period without letting everyone else know. Oh, the woes of being female. "You see, I got these really bad cramps," I said slowly, "They're not a big deal, but they get annoying when they come at the end of every single month like this, and I was wondering if you might have some medicine or something I could take."

"Oh, I see," Izumi said curtly as she stood up from her spot at the table. I nearly sighed out loud in relief at the fact that she had understood. And it seemed that no one else had-

Ed snickered softly.

I looked over at him instead of Izumi, and saw that he was desperately trying to hide an amused smile. He was also failing at it. I could feel the blood rush to my cheeks at the thought that Edward Elric himself had figured out that I was on my period.

"Come with me," Izumi said, and I quickly followed behind her. I was eager to leave the room, knowing that Ed knew what was really wrong with me. I had always been rather shy about things like that.

Izumi just led me right back to the bathroom, and then opened the cabinet under the sink and pulled out a folded white object. I smirked at the fact that she had the same hiding place as my mom back home had. It seemed that the ways women dealt with certain problems didn't change much through time or dimensions. Izumi then stood up and held out the white object to me.

"Um, what is it?" I asked nervously, looking over the thing she held out towards me. I wasn't quite sure whether I wanted to grab it or not, considering that I couldn't tell what it was at all.

"What do you mean, 'What is it'?" Izumi snorted, shaking the white object for emphasis. "It's cloth underwear, of course. Once this one is done, you put on a new pair and wash the old pair. What has your mother taught you?"

"Oh, I understand!" I said, grabbing the underwear from Izumi. "My mother just… gave me black underwear, that's all. So the white didn't look the same to me," I clarified quickly, coming up with a reason for my naïve response rather easily.

"Thank you," I added, as Izumi gave me a strange look before heading for the bathroom door. She nodded, and then closed the door behind her.

When I walked back downstairs again, I was feeling much better, albeit a little awkward. I knew that cloth underwear would certainly be better on the environment of Amestris, but it would take some getting used to on my part. I had a feeling that there were going to be plenty of other modern conveniences I was going to miss while I was in the Fullmetal Alchemist world.

I sat back down in my seat next to Ed, feeling my cheeks turn hot once more. At least he wasn't saying anything about what he knew, which I definitely appreciated.

"Why don't you eat some of your cake, Rebecca?" I heard Al say, and turned to see him looking around Ed at me. "I bet that will make you feel better." I frowned in confusion, wondering why he thought a piece of cake would help me feel better. I then looked down at my piece of cake.

…my piece of double layer super chocolaty cake.

I felt even more blood rush to my cheeks (if that was humanly possible) as I realized that Al knew as well. Not one, but _both_ Elric brothers knew I was having my period. I snapped my head back up, feeling extremely embarrassed but instead showing my emotions through anger.

"And why don't _you_ eat the cake?!" I barked back at Al. As I was saying it, I was regretting my words, but I couldn't help myself. I knew it was a bad thing to say, but I was past the point of caring. "I'm sure the cake would make you feel pretty good too, but you're not eating it either! Why don't you just take off that armor and have a slice?! Oh, I know, because you _can't _take it off!"

I was stopped in the middle of my yelling by sudden clattering of a chair to the ground. I then seemed to take notice of my surroundings, and saw that everyone was looking at me curiously, except for Al, whose emotions I couldn't read, and Ed, who had suddenly stood up from his seat and looked ready to kill me with his bare hands.

"What do you know?" Ed spat at me, his eyes merely dark golden slits as he stared me down. Both his hands were clenched into tight fists by his sides. I knew just by looking at him that any small bit of friendship I had managed to build up with Ed over the past few hours was now gone, courtesy of my big mouth.

"I don't know anything!" I said quickly, waving my hands in front of my as if they would manage to ward off an angry boy with two metal limbs. "I don't know what I was saying! I just thought it was the best guess!"

Ed just stood there silently, as if he could turn me to ashes with just his eyes. I could feel the stares of the other people in the room, but I only decided to concentrate on Ed for the time being. I could practically see the black flames leaping off his body.

"We're leaving tomorrow morning," Ed finally said. His voice was softer than before, but it still carried just as much poison in its words. He then turned and walked out of the room. My eyes fell next on Al, who looked at me silently for a minute before following after his brother. I had no idea how he was feeling since he hadn't said anything to me and I couldn't see any expressions on his face.

I then realized that the last three members of the household were staring at me intently, perhaps even getting ready to ask me more questions. I quickly stood up, keeping my eyes averted.

"Thank you for the cake," I said quickly. I then turned around and fled the room, just wanting to get away from the situation. The door of the room I had been staying in previously was closed, so I guessed that Ed and Al were in there. I didn't even touch the doorknob and moved onto the next room down the hall.

I couldn't believe how much I had managed to foul things up. I practically wanted to cry, but tears never came that night. Instead, I just fell asleep on the bed, doing my best to shut out the world and my problems.

* * *

I woke up again late that night, wincing in pain at the cramps that continued their assault on me. I got up from my bed and groggily walked to the bathroom, where I then changed my underwear and trudged back to my room. I tried to go back to sleep for a few minutes before I realized that I wasn't going to be able to fall asleep for at least a few more hours.

I sighed and walked out of the room, wondering what I could do to occupy myself. I remembered back to how Winry had told me to write back to her. I figured that would be a good way to pass the time, except I had left my bag in the room where Ed was now sleeping. As in Ed, the blond boy who was very angry with me.

I cautiously looked down at my watch. It said that it was ten minutes past one o'clock in the morning. I figured that with Ed's sleeping habits, he would be deep asleep and no problem to me by that time of night. Al, however, would be wide-awake. I just hoped he wasn't mad at me. I didn't think so, but I wasn't at all sure.

"Al?" I whispered as I knocked softly on the closed door. "I left my backpack in there. Could you please hand it to me?" I sighed in relief when I heard the answering clank of metal from behind the door. The door then opened to reveal a familiar metal face holding the orange backpack out towards me.

"How did you know I would be awake?" he asked me as I took the bag from his hands. I opened my mouth to try and say something, but lack of proper rest made it nearly impossible for me to think up anything on the spot so quickly.

"Brother's right, you do know something," Al said softly, and I could feel my face droop. The way he was talking to me was the "I'm not angry, I'm disappointed" tone. "I don't know what exactly you know, and I don't know how you know it, but I do think that you were trying to keep it a secret from us. Am I right?"

I just hung my head, not able to lie to Al, but not able to force the truth past my lips either.

"That's what I thought," Al continued softly. "I trusted you, Rebecca. All I can say is that it takes a lot to rebuild trust, and who knows if you'll have that opportunity now that we're leaving. Goodnight." He then closed the door quietly, leaving me alone in the hall. I tightened the grip on my backpack before slowly trudging down to the living room.

I froze when I saw the golden hair illuminated in the light of the moon shining through the living room window. He hadn't seemed to notice me, so I started to turn around and leave the way I had come. I knew I didn't want to push whatever luck I might have with Ed.

"Rebecca."

I winced at the smooth voice that suddenly froze me in my tracks. He didn't sound as angry as he did before, but he didn't sound like he was at all pleased. His voice reminded me more of how Mustang had sounded over the phone when I had talked to him so long ago.

"Yes?" I said nervously, turning back around to face Ed. This time his face was completely devoid of any emotion as he stared at me, unlike just a few hours ago.

"Come sit down," he told me, and I knew from the tone of his voice that there was not going to be any arguing with him. I sighed slightly and, gripping my backpack tightly in one hand, walked over and sat on the opposite end of the couch from Ed.

"Why'd you come down here?" Ed asked, turning back to look out the window behind the sofa. "Couldn't sleep?"

"No," I muttered, pulling my legs up to my chest and wrapping my legs around them after making sure my skirt wasn't showing anything. Luckily, it was a reasonably long skirt, and I didn't have to worry about anything. I reminded myself not to fall asleep in my clothes as I realized just how wrinkled the skirt had become.

Ed and I both fell quiet then. I was too worried of what Ed might do if I got up and left, and Ed seemed to be too lost in his own thoughts to talk with me.

After a few minutes of deafening silence, I reached into my backpack and grabbed the stationary set Winry had given me. I carefully pulled out a sheet of paper and the matching pen that had come with the set and set them upon my lap. After a moment of thought, I began writing carefully, making sure to keep my handwriting neat.

_October 25_

_Dear Winry, _

_  
Well, here I am, a little off track from my original destination. My train had problems on the way out, and I ended up getting rerouted to Dublith. A woman by the name of Izumi Curtis ended up finding me and inviting me to stay with her for the time being. _

_After a slightly rocky start, Mrs. Curtis and I have gotten along well. Today was also my birthday, and you'll never believe the birthday present I received. Last night, at a little past midnight, your old childhood friends Edward and Alphonse suddenly showed up. I must say I was rather ecstatic to meet them and be able to celebrate my birthday with them. _

_But now things have turned a bit sour. I'm afraid that I accidentally said a few things that seemed to really tick Ed off. Al doesn't seem to be as mad as his brother, but I can tell that what I said also unnerved him a bit. I don't know quite how I can fix this, considering that what I said isn't the type of thing you can just take back. Ed says he and Al are leaving tomorrow morning, and I don't want to end this on a sour note. Maybe I can-_

"You know Winry too?" a soft voice suddenly said, making my pen jerk along the paper. I looked up from my paper to see Ed looking curiously at me, his eyes flicking down at the paper every now and then, as if he couldn't resist reading over my shoulder.

"Yeah, I know Winry," I said, barely able to make my tongue form the words properly. "She found me by the side of the road in the middle of a storm and she took me in." Ed didn't seem to react to the news, and just turned back to looking calmly out the window again. I didn't know what he was looking at other than the full moon, considering how dark it was outside.

"Did Winry tell you about Al?" Ed asked softly, not looking back at me as he talked.

"No," I answered simply. "She wouldn't tell me any secrets about you, not even in our truth or dare game."

"I didn't think she would," Ed said quietly, and then silence fell over us once more.

"You didn't put the year on your letter, you know," Ed finally told me.

"I know," I said, glancing back down at the piece of paper. I had actually put down a two as the beginning of the year, but hurriedly scratched it out when I realized that Amestris would be years behind the twenty-first century. I wondered if Ed had noticed that little detail.

"You know, it's polite to include the year when you write a letter," Ed told me, and I shrank slightly under his gaze. He obviously didn't know exactly what was going on, but I could tell that he knew something was up.

"I know it's polite," I replied nervously. "I just didn't feel like putting it down."

"So let me get this straight," Ed said slowly as he stood up and started pacing the room thoughtfully. "Winry found you by the side of the road, you know _something_ about Al, and as if that isn't enough, you don't know what year it is."

"I know what year it is!" I protested quickly.

"Oh, yeah?" Ed said, smirking and turning back to look at me directly. "Then enlighten me. What year is it?" I felt the blood drain from my face and my jaw drop open slightly.

"Um, it's… um… 1920… something," I stammered, and Ed crossed his arms across his chest triumphantly. "1920… um, 1925?" I tried, but I knew I was just making myself look worse.

"Tell me, Rebecca," Ed said slowly, resuming his pacing again and not bothering to tell me whether I had gotten the year right or not. I had a pretty strong idea that I hadn't, but I wanted to know if I was at least close. "If I tried searching for records of you in this country, would I be able to find anything? Your accent isn't like anything I've heard before, and even though Al and I might not be…" Ed paused and coughed slightly before continuing, "_accurate_ depictions of this country's average height, you're actually taller than most average citizens." I nearly laughed at the fact that Ed managed to say the entire sentence with a scowl on his face.

"So tell me, Rebecca, are you really a citizen of Amestris?" Ed asked, turning to look back at me. "Can you sing the national anthem?"

"Um… my school didn't teach that?" I tried weakly, knowing that it wouldn't work against Ed. If he did try looking for me in the records, I knew I would be in trouble. America certainly wouldn't be on any maps in his world, and I didn't think I could pass as someone from Xing, considering my looks.

"Right now, you are a person of high suspicion, and I have no choice but to take you to Central for questioning," Ed said in a curt, formal tone that I wasn't used to hearing from him. I then realized that he must have been thinking of a proper plan for a long time, maybe hours. He was going to end up using this to his advantage to find out what I knew about Al and how I came to know it.

But it still meant that I was going to Central with Ed and Al. Though they weren't exactly buddy-buddy with me at the moment, I was still excited at the thought. I wasn't sure how I would gain their trust after what I had said, but I knew I had to do it somehow. Ed fell silent again, and flopped back down on the sofa.

"How's Winry dong, anyway?" he asked after a few minutes of silence between the two of us.

"She seems okay," I said slowly. "But she does miss you two an awful lot."

"She always does," Ed sighed, leaning his head backwards on the sofa. He then looked back over at me, and seeming to remember that he was angry with me, straightened back up and adopted the familiar scowl once more.

"So you really think I'm not from this country?" I said slowly, remembering how Ed had said that I had a strange accent. I hadn't been paying much attention to it before, but I realized that my speaking did sound very different in contrast to everyone else's.

"Um, yeah," Ed said simply. "For starters, you might want to consider not speaking in ILT when you want to blend in."

"ILT?" I repeated confusedly. I couldn't remember hearing that mentioned in any of the anime or manga.

"Yeah, ILT," Ed repeated simply. I just cocked my head and frowned, wondering what he meant by that. Ed stared at me in disbelief and said, "You mean you don't know what ILT is?"

"Um… no?" I said slowly, feeling blood rush up to my cheeks slightly. I had the feeling that I was only adding more evidence to the suspicion that I was a foreigner.

"ILT stands for the International Language of Travelers," Ed informed me, shaking his head in disbelief. "Each country has its own traditional language, but all children are also taught ILT when they're young. That way, all countries can communicate with one another easily. ILT is what we're speaking right now. You didn't honestly think we spoke this all the time, did you?"

"Then what do you speak?" I croaked out, feeling like my eyes would pop out of their sockets.

"Amestrian, duh," Ed said with a roll of his eyes. "Everyone here speaks that when they don't have to worry about someone not understanding them."

"But what about the books here?" I said quickly. "I understood those perfectly fine when they weren't in alchemic mumbo jumbo!"

"Most of the time books are written in ILT," Ed sighed. "That way they can be traded through different countries easily. Especially the more official books like alchemy books. There's less chance for something like a cheesy romance novel to be written in ILT."

"Say something in Amestrian," I said breathlessly. I had never really thought about how the characters in FMA probably spoke another language, but it actually made a lot of sense, in a way.

"Manai ken euch keha tenamis," Ed said with a roll to his eyes. I leaned forward curiously as he spoke. The words sounded slightly like the German I had learned in school, but they were different at the same time. Almost like German had been mixed together with a bit of Japanese.

"What's that mean?" I inquired quickly.

"I have no idea who the hell you are," Ed sighed in response, and I chuckled at the translation. "Well, _roughly_ that's what it means. It's not the same as ILT, obviously."

"Obviously," I said with a grin. I couldn't help but be excited anymore, despite the fact that I was just piling up more and more evidence against my case. Besides, what was happening to me so far seemed to somewhat follow the normal Fullmetal OC insert fanfic, which meant that Ed would eventually find out about where I really came from anyway.

But then, as I sat there grinning, something else clicked into place within my mind. Or, more accurately, clicked _out_ of place. Just the night before I had heard—and understood—Ed and Al talking as they had walked up the stairs.

"But what about last night?" I asked slowly, thinking back to the previous night. "I don't think I said anything, but I understood all that you two said. Why would you and Al be using ILT if you didn't know that's what I speak in?"

"We weren't using ILT," Ed said slowly, seeming to consider me carefully. "Maybe you just read our tones and body language and _thought_ you understood what we were saying." I frowned and considered the thought. It sure hadn't seemed like I had been reading tones and body language the night before. It seemed like I knew exactly what they were saying.

"Now you go to bed," Ed said, standing up and stretching his arms. "We're going to have to leave early tomorrow morning," he paused before amending, "Well, early today, actually. Al and I will be in the room next door, so don't try anything funny. We'll know if you try to escape." I nodded quickly and stood up. There was no way I was going to try getting out of going to Central with Ed and Al, even if I was going as a "person of high suspicion."

* * *

After only a few hours, I was awake again and pacing my room. I didn't really want to go back to sleep, since I was too anxious to really be able to sleep properly anyway. I wondered briefly if Ed and Al could hear me pacing, and if that would make them think that I was feeling like a caged animal.

I sighed and turned to my backpack, figuring that I would need to pack my things if I was going to leave in just a few hours. I picked up the familiar orange backpack, loosened the string holding it closed, and then dumped the items on my bed. I then turned and grabbed the bags filled with clothes from shopping earlier that day, and also dumped those onto the bed. I figured that having all my possessions in front of me would make it easier for me to take stock and get ready.

I then realized just how much more stuff I had since I had first showed up at Winry's house. I appreciated the increase in my variety of clothes, but I knew that it wouldn't all fit in my backpack anymore. I sighed and walked over to the wall separating me from Ed and Al.

"Hey, do you guys have a suitcase I can borrow?" I asked, tapping on the wall with a fist and making sure to pronounce my words clearly. I could barely hear sigh form one of the members of the room before I heard the familiar hiss-like sound of a transmutation.

"Here," Ed said a minute later, standing at my door with a suitcase in one hand. I gratefully took it from his hands and tried flashing a smile in his direction, but it didn't seem to have any affect on the blond alchemist, who just turned and left again.

I turned the suitcase over in my hands a few times, marveling at how much more alchemic control Ed had compared to my own rather crude style. The suitcase seemed similar to the one I had seen Ed carry throughout most of the series, except I couldn't be sure whether his also had a skull and crossbones as a decorative latch.

I chucked to myself, partly at the fact that he hadn't made the style of the whole suitcase gothic, and partly at the fact that he still couldn't completely stop himself. I then set the suitcase on my bed and opened it.

I looked through all my worldly good for a few minutes before figuring I should pack things I might need more quickly in my backpack, and put the other things in the suitcase. I sighed and quickly sorted through the items I had collected.

The clothes Ed had gotten me mostly went in the suitcase, except for one outfit that I put in my backpack, just in case. I then took my corduroy pants, white shirt, and purple jacket and set those to the side so I could wear them the next day. I didn't want to accidentally pack them. I also put my red pirate hat and knuckle gloves with the clothes, figuring that I might as well look the part of an adventurer. I seemed to be slipping into the part easily enough.

Once I had my clothes for the next day picked out, I started carefully folding the rest of my clothes and packing them into the suitcase. Eventually I worked down to my original set of clothes—the "dirty" Get Caught Reading shirt and green cargo pants. I glanced over the clothes before throwing them under the bed. The clothes I had once worn no longer fit in with my new wardrobe.

I decided that from that point forward, I was going to be a new person, one who took risks and wasn't the coward hiding in the corner. My old clothes just wouldn't fit in with that outlook.

Eventually I somehow managed to fit all my possessions into the suitcase and backpack, though it was a little tight. I paused for a minute and stared at the suitcase, wondering if there was anything I had forgotten. I then remembered back to the problem I'd had that morning, and knew that I couldn't get caught unprepared like that again.

"Hey, I'm just going to go to the bathroom, okay?" I said, tapping on the wall for the second time that night. I figured it would be best just to let Ed and Al know what I was doing rather than have them catch me out of my room.

I then opened my door and walked out into the hall, almost surprised that Ed hadn't locked my door. I then noticed that the door to the Elrics' room had opened, and Ed was leaning against the doorframe, watching me apprehensively with his golden eyes. I knew I had said some things that probably weren't the wisest choice earlier in the day, but I wondered if that was really a reason for all the suspicion and precautions.

Once I was safely in the bathroom, I carefully pulled out a few pairs of underwear. Izumi seemed to have plenty, so I figured she wouldn't miss a few pairs. Luckily we seemed to be close to the same size.

I tried finding a way to conceal the underwear somehow, but then realized Ed and Al both already knew I was on my period anyway. I shrugged with a sigh and then walked back out into the hall with the underwear in plain sight.

"I'm guessing that you're going to say you needed those," Ed said, cocking an eyebrow when he saw the underwear clutched in my hands. I could feel the blood start rising to my cheeks unconsciously, but then remembered how I had decided to be braver—better—than I was back in my world.

"Well, I do," I retorted. "You seemed to find it very amusing when you first figured that out, you child prodigy."

"Well…yeah," Ed said slowly, reaching up to scratch the back of his head. I smirked at the fact that now it was his turn to be the one blushing. "It was kind of hard for me and Al _not_ to know that, though."

He looked up and seemed to realize that I was confused by what he said, so he sighed, and continued, "Well, our dad left when we were just little kids, and then… Well, our mom died a few years later, so we've had to teach ourselves everything like that. When you learn about sex from a book, you kind of end up learning about guys _and_ girls."

"Oh," I said softly, halfway between smirking and blushing. "That—"

"The train leaves at five-forty," Ed said, interrupting suddenly. I jerked and looked down at my watch. It read 5:25. Just then I realized how different my life was becoming already. Usually I was always too tired to stay awake at five a.m. in the morning.

"I'll go finish packing," I mumbled, and then turned and hurried back to my room. I quickly crammed the underwear in my suitcase with all my other clothes and snapped it shut. I then turned to the other items I had left and started cramming them into my backpack.

After a few minutes, I had managed to pack completely. I then quickly grabbed the clothes I had laid out and started changing into them. I knew we only would have a few minutes to get to the train station, and I was actually eager to get going. I then quickly pulled on my boots and slung my backpack over my shoulder.

"Hey, I'm ready," I said, lightly tapping on the wall yet again. I paused and grabbed the suitcase off my bed just in time to see the door swing open to reveal both Ed and Al standing there.

"Okay, then let's get out of here," Ed said impatiently with a jerk of his head. I nodded and took a few steps forward, glancing quickly around the room. I had no clue if I would return to see Izumi, Sig and Mason ever again.

"Yeah," I agreed, turning and following the two brothers. "Let's get out of here."

* * *

_**Lesson of the Day**__**—The Amestrian Language**_

"Manai ken euch keha tenamis"

mahn-aye ken oy-ch kay-hah ten-ah-miss

I have no idea who the hell you are, **or** who the hell do you think you are?

tenamis: amis-hell, ten-who, so tenamis-who the hell, or literally, whohell. Also used with other W questions, as in what the hell, when the hell, where the hell, why the hell and how the hell.

"Euch" is actually one of the German forms of "You."

* * *

_**Author's Note:**_

Well, I'm finally done! Can you believe it? Yeah, I'm aware that this chapter took me… forever. I'm very sorry for that, everyone, heh. My life just suddenly got very, very busy, heh. But a few days ago inspiration finally hit me, and now I've finally managed to finish this, muahahaha!!

Anyway, as for thoughts on this chapter, you would not believe how exhausting it is to figure out what Amestrian sounds like, heh. Took me a few hours to figure out that one sentence, and then I took a nap. But look forward to more Amestrian in future chapters. ;)

Hm, I wonder why Rebecca could understand Ed and Al the night before? Well, _I_ know, but I'm evil, or so I'm told. Any guesses, as usual, are very welcome indeed. I've enjoyed seeing what you all think. :)

Anyway, I'm going to wrap this up now, and work on the next chapter, since I didn't get to fit in the journey to Central in this chapter, heh. Once the trio gets there, things should pick up a bit and therefore make it easier for me to churn out chapters more quickly. Sorry for the wait on this, and thanks all for waiting with me! :D

* * *

_**Review Replies (thanks all!):**_

**YourFavouitePlushie:** I'm glad you liked the intro to the Elrics! That was definitely one of the most fun chapters to write! ;) I'm glad Rebecca's a strong character, she's certainly set the record for longest chapters out of all my fanfics. Phew.

Your comments make me feel all warm and fuzzy inside! :D Here's the next chapter for you, hope you enjoy it!

**Devil-Speaker:** Why is Ed always mean to Rebacca? Because she stole his bed, forced him to go shopping for clothes, and is tall on top of everything else! XD

Okay, honestly? Because Ed feels like he's being replaced, so he responds with aggression. That's why.

**Renneh:** Aw, I would have loved a long review… FFdotNet really can suck sometimes. Ah, well, time to live in the present and respond to the review you left for this chapter! XD

Ah, I get so sick of fangirls going to Ed and Al's world and then just being total alchemic geniuses!! Grr… Rebecca's smart, but she's not a child genius, that's for sure. She certainly could use the practice, but there will be other things getting in the way.

Al sitting on her…? Yes that would have been pretty funny, but then I would have had to do a few chapters with Rebecca in the hospital! Though it would have been even worse if Armstrong accidentally sat on her… -shudders-

I get so sick of the girls in managas just being all "Oh, I'm not pretty at all!" and then they're all VAVOOM like some sort of Barbie doll. –sigh- But you gotta admit, there are times when it would be nice to live in a manga or anime.

You're guess is close, but not quite there. ;) You'll find out soon enough! But yes, it's unfortunate for Ed that he's seventeen and still looking for the Philosopher's stone…

Here's the update, enjoy! :D

**fadedphantom:** Ah! The horror!! I totally understand though; sometimes I've left one review for, like, fifteen chapters because I was too lazy to review each one separately. Eh heh.

Asthma does most certainly suck. And I would bet it would suck even more if you have to run around the country with the Elric brothers. –sweatdrops- And a birthday on that island would have definitely stunk. But now Rebecca gets a nice birthday with Ed and Al! :D Yay for the Elrics!

And yes, Ed will eventually find the page in his journal that Rebecca didn't remove… muahahahahaha…

You look forward to my story the most?! Really?! –eyes get watery- I can't believe it! And then I took forever to update too… T-T

Here's the update for you, hope you like it!

**DESTROY-THE-HORMONES:** Unfortunately for me, I don't swear. And even if I did, I don't know any Japanese swears.

I once stabbed myself in the hand with a pair of scissors! Okay, okay, so it was an accident…

Yeah, "big ones" suck. Especially when you have to go bra shopping. –shudders- Back when I was a naïve young sixth grader I would have killed for boobs like this, but now I know how stupid of a wish that is.

I can't draw transmutation circles either. Even with a ruler. And that makes my brothers think I'm crazy. Fortunately for Rebecca, Amestris runs by a different set of rules! :D

And as for female dictators, there was that insane lady in Conqueror of Shamballa. –shudders- Though she had really masculine shoulders, so maybe that doesn't count…

**agent000:** Moo? –gasp- Arakawa?! Wait… Arakawa wouldn't write fanfiction for her own story… Drat!

Yes, I know Ed really has a soft chewy center, but he comes back to Izumi's house to find someone else in his room, sleeping in his bed. And a _tall _girl at that. So he feels kinda like his territory is being threatened and is acting more defensive. Like a dog. Or a wolf. Bowwow.

Hmm… maybe next year I'll give NaNoWriMo a try. Though it would certainly be challenging. Bu hey, life wouldn't be the same if it wasn't for challenges, huh? I would certainly love to read any book you manage to get published, though. I'm sure it would be interesting. I'm trying to finish my own book right now, though I'm only on chapter two right now… -cries- Ah, well, I'll finish it someday. If there's one thing FMA taught me, it's that you can't rush genius! –shakes fist-

**C.M Aeris Queen of Insanity:** -blinks- 'Kay. Thank you. –grins-

**Zilo's Blue Pen:** Fruits Basket! Kee! But as much as Kyo rocks, ya gotta luv Ed and Al! XD It hurt to have FIFTY-ONE whole stinkin' pages before Ed and Al came into the story. That's a new record for me.

-looks at candy longingly, then shakes head- No! Must… resist… You'll have to wait until Rebecca finds out what Envy wants with her! But I WILL give you a hint… it has to do with Envy's ultimate wish, at least, according to the anime...

Ed: Hey, I'll tell you! Give me the candy!

-pushes Ed aside quickly- No spoilers, chibi-chump!

Ed: Grawr!!

Yes, Izumi is smart indeed. She did have to teach the Elric brothers. They wouldn't have an idiot for a teacher, now would they? ;) And give your sis a hug from me. Drops in temperature are painful when it comes to asthma.

Hee hee. I'm glad the clothing store was funny. I don't even want to think of how much some fangirls would pay for just a minute inside that store. Too bad the store is having some money problems and will probably end up going out of business… -sniffle- And Ed is original in different ways. He's just not a fashion diva. Though the leather pants… -rubs chin thoughtfully-

Ed: Hey! I am NOT!!

-starts singing- I'm an Edo-kun, in an edo wo-or-rld, I'm made of me-taaal, just like a ke-ettle!

Ed: Grrr…

Here's the next chapter for you! Yay! Ed will find Rebecca's letter to him someday, though I'm not sure of when specifically. But he WILL find it! And meanwhile I will keep writing this until I reach the very end! Hopefully my laptop will also obey my commands!

Anywho, I should probably wrap this up. -glances over at Ed- The natives are getting restless. Thank you for reading and leaving such long reviews! See you next chapter! –waves-

**Eloquent Liar:** Thanks so much! I've had the same sort of dilemma with stories in the past, though frankly, I don't really mind if you somewhat copy the chapter. As long as it's not the 'cut and paste' type of copying. XD

**Blue Dragon:** Haha, thanks, I'm glad you liked the Elrics! And yes, Mustang is certainly going to be trouble, lol. That will be an interesting chapter to write. Thanks for reading and reviewing! :D

**Megan Nguyen:** Haha, well, thank you very much. I work very hard on the detail I put into chapters, and I also try to read over them to ensure as few spelling mistakes as possible. Thanks very much for the compliments; I will try to keep it up, haha. Here's the update, finally, sorry I didn't work as hard as you might have hoped, heh. ;)


	7. Chapter 7

_**Chapter Six - Concerning Chapter Seven – Concerning Protection, Rainbows, and a Detour**_

"And where do you think you're going?" a stern voice demanded as we crept down the stairs. I felt the blood drain out of my face, and could almost feel it drain from Ed's and Al's faces as well, even though Al didn't have any blood to physically drain from his face. The feeling was the same between all three of us as we slowly turned around and looked at Izumi.

"Um, the train station?" Ed tried nervously, and Izumi's frown deepened.

"Without saying goodbye?" she said in a voice that booked no arguments, and I could see Ed wince from his position standing beside me.

"We didn't want to wake you," Al jumped in quickly, and Izumi turned to look at him instead, much to the very visible relief of Ed. She considered Al for a moment, then turned to me instead. I felt like I wanted nothing more than to sink into a puddle on the floor.

"And why are you going with them, Rebecca?" she asked me seriously, and I fumbled around for an answer. If I said that I was going because Ed had arrested me, Ed would probably get thrown over a building, or worse, but if I said that I was going just because I wanted to, _I_ might get thrown over a building, or worse.

"It's my fault," Ed suddenly said before I had a chance to think up a proper excuse. "I convinced Ray to come with us since we're going to be near her home. I think she should make up with her parents, so she's going to come with us."

Izumi then looked at me expectantly, so I just shrugged and nodded in agreement to Ed's story. Izumi narrowed her eyes slightly as if she wasn't quite sure whether to believe me or not, but she didn't contradict the story, so it seemed as if we were safe from being thrown over building. At least, we were safe for today.

"Ray?" I said, looking over at Ed curiously, realizing that he had used that name to refer to me.

"I give nicknames to all my _friends_," Ed said, looking over at me, and I could see the threatening tone that touched his eyes and not his voice. "Rebecca… Ray. Get used to it, you can't control nicknames." I snorted and nodded, remembering how I had once told one of my friends the same thing years ago.

Besides, I wasn't truly Ed's "friend," no matter how much I wanted to be. Once we left Izumi's he would drop the act, I knew. Once we were away and he wasn't scared of getting thrown over a building, I knew he would go back to calling me Rebecca in that same cold way that made the hairs on my arm stand on end.

I really wished I hadn't said what I had about Al earlier. I hated that I had just let my mouth run away with me, and now Ed seemed to hate me for it, while Al was barely even speaking to me. I had always imagined being great friends with Ed and Al if I had ever somehow managed to end up in their world, not be considered as an enemy. It was completely maddening.

"Don't forget your bike, Rebecca," Izumi said, suddenly jerking me out of my brooding thoughts. "It's out back." I nodded glumly and hefted my backpack over my shoulder more securely before walking through the house to where I knew the door leading to the small backyard was.

I found my bike resting against the wall carefully, and guessed that Izumi must have taken it back there in order to keep it safe for me, since I had left it outside the front door last I could remember.

I slowly wheeled my bike away from the wall and around the house until I was in front of the main door. I leaned my bike on its stand with a sigh, and then went in through the front door so I was in the shop part of the house.

"I don't appreciate this, Edward," I could hear Izumi say sternly. It still surprised me how loud her voice could become when she wasn't pleased with a set of circumstances.

"Don't appreciate what?" I heard Ed reply as innocently as he could manage, but I could also hear in his voice how he was scared of what Izumi's next move was going to be.

"I know why Rebecca is going with you, Edward. You can't fool me," Izumi said icily, and was greeted with absolute silence from both the brothers. "And I don't appreciate it one bit. Rebecca may know more than most people, but she is not evil."

"And how do you know that?" I could hear Ed huff in reply.

"The same way a mother knows her child didn't commit a crime they are accused of," Izumi said, and I frowned. She was treating me as if I were her daughter? But I knew I wasn't like the Elrics, and I had made it clear to everyone that I had a family waiting for me somewhere. Why treat me like a daughter if she knew I would just end up leaving her for my own family?

"Oh, so she's your kid now?" Ed snapped with a touch of venom in his voice. "Well, sorry, _Teacher_, I didn't know you just took us in because you're running a damn adoption house. I sure hope we didn't get in your way, so we'll just leave now. Don't worry about telling us when the next batch of kids comes in, we certainly wouldn't want to end up competing for affection."

"Brother—" Al started hesitantly, but was cut off by a loud, resounding smack.

"It's not like that Edward, and you know it," Izumi reprimanded sternly, and I winced at the tone even though it wasn't directed at me. "Part of why I took you on as students was because there was something about both of you that reminded me of myself when I was younger. You should get to know Rebecca more before you decide to be enemies with her, considering that something about her reminds me of myself, and therefore also of you, Edward. Except she has a vagina so she's even more like myself and less like you."

I snickered softly and blushed at the same time, thinking of how Izumi was right in one thing, women seemed to have an invisible bond with one another, just because we all shared a common curse. We could easily sympathize with another woman going through her time of the month, while men could never truly understand.

I then sighed and frowned, realizing that I had been compared to the famous Edward Elric yet again. What was with these people? How could they see similarities between me and him? Ed was strong, brave, resilient, all sorts of things that I wasn't. I could barely run the mile at school while I figured that he would have no problem doing it. He could easily keep his head and fight against anyone who challenged him, while I blanched at the very thought. He could pick himself up after a horrible event and keep going forward, while I had refused to touch m bike for weeks after falling off it once. I was certainly no Edward Elric, not even a teeny tiny bit.

_You don't cry very much. Neither does he._

I wrinkled my forehead as the small thought entered my head, as if a friend were whispering it in my ear. It was true, I didn't cry very often. I used to cry often, even when my mom was late for picking me up, but I had hated being made fun of for being weak, and so I had taught myself not to cry. But just a shared dislike for being weak and a lack of tears couldn't make me like Ed, could it?

_You're stubborn too, just like him._

I rubbed at my forehead as the little voice in my head continued. The second statement was also true, and I knew it. When my parents had first been married, they'd had an argument over who was more stubborn; first one to give in loses. I had inherited the same stubborn streak that they both had, but even if that were combined with me hating being called weak, I still couldn't be comparable to the Fullmetal Alchemist. He was amazing, especially when he was a real person and not just a character, while I was just… ordinary. I couldn't compare to him.

Could I? Everyone else sure seemed to think so.

"Rebecca?" a soft voice asked, jerking me out of my thoughts. I turned and saw Al standing at the doorway, no emotion showing on his face just like any other time. "Are you ready to go?"

I nodded mutely as Ed appeared in the doorway beside Al with a red mark on his cheek. I then realized that the smack I had heard must have been Izumi slapping Ed across the cheek. Ed scowled and reached up to rub at the sore spot before looking at me angrily.

"Come on, let's get out of here before the train leaves without us," he muttered before stalking out the door. Al and I glanced at one another before turning and hurrying after Ed.

I sighed and shifted adjusted my grip on my bike as we walked down the path in complete silence. Al had offered to carry my suitcase for me since it was a bit difficult to manage with my bike, and I had been grateful for the offer. I then turned and looked back at the house to see Izumi standing at the front door, watching us leave. I smiled and waved goodbye to her, half hoping I could stay, and half relived I was going before she had a chance to really cover my body in bruises.

"Hey, Ed," I said quietly, nudging his shoulder. "Your teacher is waving goodbye to you. Why don't you wave back?" Ed sighed and rolled his eyes in response before sticking his hand up in the air and waving without looking back. I sighed and turned a second time with Al copying my movement and we both waved goodbye to Izumi. I felt it was a fitting way to move on from one part of my adventure and on to the next. I was travelling with the Elric brothers now, the very same I had ogled over in my manga and in the television series.

"You're really going to have to learn to blend in," Ed said, interrupting my thoughts suddenly. I turned to look at him, but he just continued to stare straight ahead at the road, clutching his suitcase in his right hand.

"Oh really?" I managed to say, though my throat felt as if it had been coated in sandpaper. I coughed in an attempt to clear it, though it didn't do me much good. "Why? And how are you going to make me 'blend in'?" Ed turned to look at me, and I almost wished he would go back to staring straight ahead instead.

"Why?" he said with a bark of a laugh. "Why? Because you stick out like a cow in a herd of sheep, that's why." I bit my lip and slouched my shoulders in shame as I stared down at my feet. I hadn't known I was so different from everyone else in Amestris, and really, all things considered, I thought I had managed to blend in somewhat decently, not like "a cow in a herd of sheep."

"As for the 'how,' I'm not as sure," Ed muttered, his tone turning serious again as he looked back to the road. "I suppose that the first matter of business would be to teach you some basic Amestrian so that you don't go around speaking in ILT all the time…"

My heart leapt at the thought, but I tried my best not to show it. I wanted to try and prove myself to Ed and act as cool as I could possibly manage. However, the thought of learning his and Al's language still excited me, even though I had a terrible time with grammar in German. Judging by what I had heard of Amestrian, it certainly had some ties to German, which made sense since the Fullmetal Alchemist movie had taken place in Germany.

But that didn't line up well either. I had already decided I was in the manga plotline, so this world couldn't follow the rules of movie or the anime, would it?

But then again, ILT or Amestrian had never been mentioned in the anime, manga, or movie. Not even any fansites or fanfiction I had looked at in my obsession. Could it be possible that the world I was in didn't follow the actual laws or the anime or manga, but was instead the real, actual world that FMA had been based off of? But how could Hiromu Arakawa know the story of this world if she had never been to it? How did she know the history of a boy named Edward Elric when he had never lived in our time? Then again, how could I be walking down the road beside the very same boy?

"Maybe we'll have to find a way to disguise you as well," Ed says, looking back towards me. "We can't really make you shorter," he said with a scowl. "but you could wear the flattest shoes we can find, and maybe see if there's some clothes that create the illusion of you being shorter than you are. And don't stand too close to me either. People already know… my size. If they go comparing me to you, then any illusion we create will be lost."

"Okay," I agree, barely managing to hold back a laugh. It might make me look taller than I was supposed to be, but it could also make Ed look shorter than he was supposed to be. Of course he wouldn't want that to happen. "I'm not that tall though, am I?"

Ed turned and gave me a look that needed no words to be said with it.

"Well, I mean, I'm only a head or so taller than you," I said slowly, comparing myself with him. "That's not too much—"

"Only half a head, and you're a freakishly tall foreigner!" Ed protested quickly, and I had a hard time holding back my laughter. I glanced over to Al to see how he was doing, but his face was the same blank mask as ever, and he just continued to walk on in silence.

Ed then sighed and relaxed his posture before saying thoughtfully, "It's going to take a lot of work to make you able to blend in…"

"Why?" I asked, frowning. If Ed acted as he felt and really didn't enjoy my company, then why would he put so much time and effort into keeping me safe? I was just the sudden teenage girl that showed up who was far too tall and had a big mouth to match her big size.

"Because you stick out like a dislocated knee, I thought I said that already," Ed frowned simply. I snickered slightly at the thought of me sticking out like a dislocated knee. "It's going to take a lot of work to make you look like you're from Amestris when you're so obviously… _not_."

"No, not like that," I said with a shake to my head, and Ed cocked his head as he looked at me. "I mean, why would you put in all this effort to help me when I'm just some arrested suspect you picked up? Why would you care what happens to me?" At this question Ed seemed to falter, and he frowned even more heavily before looking back to the road once again.

"Because…" He stopped and sighed heavily. "Because I know that you know something about Al and me, and I don't want you to be taken away to some military jail cell or something before I have a chance to question you properly."

"Oh." I nodded silently and kept walking, wondering to myself what kind of answer I had been hoping for.

"And because," Ed started slowly, and I looked at him curiously, wondering what else he would possibly say. Ed just sighed and ran his left hand through his bangs. "Because…" he started again hesitantly. He then muttered under his breath and continued in Amestrian, "Am taiesh san Rebecca no gah meiketo." He glanced back at me with an unreadable expression before huffing and storming ahead.

"What?" I said in bewilderment as I stared after him. I then turned to Al, hoping for answers. "What did he say? Tell me what he said, please!" I said breathlessly. I still wasn't sure what I was hoping for, surely Ed hadn't confessed of his love for me in a sentence of Amestrian.

"I don't know if—" Al started, and I grabbed his arm, hoping I could somehow convince him to tell me what Ed had said.

"Please, if I was anyone else in this country I would have just known what he was saying," I said, hoping that would be enough to get Al to translate.

"If you were anyone else in the country, you probably wouldn't be coming with us in the first place, and even if you were, then Brother wouldn't have said it at all," Al countered.

"Exactly," I said quickly. "He shouldn't have said it if he didn't want me to know at all. He knows you could translate for me if you wanted to. He shouldn't be able to just say whatever he wants because I don't speak your language."

"Fine," Al said hesitantly. "You have a point, and I don't think you're going to give up easily. Teacher was right, you are similar to Brother." I frowned and opened my mouth to protest, but was cut off by Al. "What he said was along the lines of 'You're the type of girl that needs protecting, Rebecca.'"

"What? I do no—" I started to protest, but then suddenly realized that in this world, I had been acting like the typical scared damsel in distress. I clenched my jaw, upset at the thought. I didn't want to be that type of girl, and I was not going to act like that anymore. I didn't want my classmates to see me as weak, I certainly didn't want Edward and Alphonse Elric to see me that way either.

"Thank you for telling me," I said to Al, and then continued down the path with a more determined step. I was going to be braver if it was the last thing I did. And hanging around Ed, it very well could be. The thought nearly made me drop my attitude—and my bike, for that matter—and run screaming back to Izumi.

It didn't occur to me until long after that what Ed had muttered in Amestrain was actually a sweet thing to say, not an insult.

* * *

I sat silently on the train staring out the window with an arm wrapped around my stomach. When I had imagined falling into Ed and Al's world, I hadn't imagined them being so suspicious of me, and I certainly hadn't imagined periods thrown in the mix. It was enough to make any sane person want to jump up and simply yell "I quit!" rather than deal with the mess I was in.

I had been stuck sitting beside Ed, since Al practically took up the whole seat on his own. Ed had grumbled for a while about not having the window seat, but I refused to let him have it, and eventually he had shut up about it. I always sat beside the window on trains, otherwise I got bad headaches that were no fun at all. Without realizing what I was doing, I started to hum under my breath right in front of both brothers as I stared at the scenery rushing past. Ed and Al both turned to look at me, but I was too caught up in my own thoughts of what I was going to do next to really notice them.

"What song is that?" Al asked quickly, making me jump in my seat and turn to look at him. "That song you were humming," he pressed. "It's pretty. I've never heard it before. What's it called?" I frowned and ran over the last line in my head, realizing that I had just been humming without thought to it and couldn't remember the actual song without hearing it again and thinking about it.

"Over the Rainbow," I answered after a minute. "It's from this story about how this girl wishes she were somewhere where she thinks everything else would be better. But when she does actually get there, she realizes that no matter where you go, you still have problems, and if your heart's desire isn't where your heart is, then it's silly to run off looking for it."

I paused and bit my lip as the words sunk in a little closer to home than I would have liked. I had never been able to relate with Dorothy so well before, considering that I had never even really gone out of the state before unless I was accompanied by my parents. Now I was farther than I had ever been, and realized that no matter how often I had wished to be away from my boring little town, it was still where I belonged. I had a family there, people who loved me unconditionally, and nothing could truly replace that. Yet I had still wished to be in Amestris—somewhere over the rainbow where skies are blue—and I had gotten that wish.

"What are the words that go with it?" Al asked curiously, and I frowned and bit my lip. Over the Rainbow didn't seem like the sort of song you could just recite to someone like poetry, but I didn't want to sing the song aloud on a train either.

I glanced around quickly, then realized that everyone else on the train was caught up in their own conversations. I smiled slightly as I realized that when I listened, I really could hear that people were speaking in a language different from the English I was used to. Amestrain flowed differently, it was smoother and rougher in different places than I was used to, and it had a different sort of energy to it compared to English, or ILT, as they called it here. I turned back and looked at Al, figuring that everyone was too busy talking to pay much attention to one girl singing softly. Besides, I had just promised myself to be braver anyway, hadn't I?

"Some—" I started nervously, then stopped myself as my voice wavered slightly. I frowned, then fixed my gaze out the window. It was easier to sing if I couldn't see the person I was singing to, whether I could read the expressions on their face or not.

"Somewhere, over the rainbow,

Way up high,

There's a land that I've heard of,

Once in a lullaby

Somewhere, over the rainbow,

Skies are blue

And the dreams that you dare to dream

Really do come true.

Someday I'll wish upon a star

And wake up where the clouds are far

Behind me

Where troubles melt like lemon drops

Away, above the chimney tops

Is where you'll find me

Somewhere, over the rainbow

Bluebirds fly

Birds fly over the rainbow,

Why then, oh why, can't I?

Someday I'll wish upon a star

And wake up where the clouds are far

Behind me

Where troubles melt like lemon drops

Away, above the chimney tops

Is where you'll find me

Somewhere, over the rainbow,

Way up high,

There's a land that I've heard of,

Once in a lullaby

If happy little bluebirds fly

Beyond the rainbow

Why, oh why, can't I?"

I finished the song softly and licked my lips. I couldn't believe I had managed to sing the song aloud, and on a crowded train no less. I hadn't even realized I had known all the words, and was even half worried I had left something out before realizing that no one here would know the song anyway, so it didn't really matter.

"Silly song," Ed muttered, and I turned my head to look at him. He was resting his chin in one hand and staring at me with a dull expression on his face. "Not like rainbows are all that special anyway, they're just particles of water reflecting light. Flying over a rainbow wouldn't do much other than make you wet. Doesn't sound like fun to me."

I opened my mouth to protest, to tell him that flying over the rainbow was merely symbolic language, not meant to be taken seriously, but instead myself murmuring, "You're right." There was an odd truth to what he said, even though he was taking the song very literally. "You're right, rainbows aren't that special. Flying over them would just make you more miserable than when you first left. Better to just keep your feet on the ground and stay blissfully ignorant of what lies over the rainbow rather than find out that all your dreams were stupid and impossible."

"Umm…" Ed said slowly, and I turned to look out the window, feeling angry with Ed, with myself, with practically everyone in Amestris for almost nothing at all. "Do rainbows have a double meaning where you come from or something?"

"No," I muttered, leaning my head against the cool glass of the windowpane. I realized that at some point I had stopped denying that I came from somewhere completely different than Amestris. Now Ed wasn't trying to weasel the name of my home country out of me, and I was simply accepting that I came from somewhere else and wasn't protesting to him saying it anymore. We were just happily ignoring the fact, but I knew it would have to be addressed again sometime. Knowing Ed, it was more likely to be addressed sooner rather than later.

I scowled as I realized that neither of the brothers was going to ask me if I was alright when I obviously wasn't, and then I curled into a tighter ball and closed my eyes in an attempt to block out the rest of the world.

* * *

I exhaled slowly through my nose as I became aware of my surroundings without opening my eyes. I could feel my head pressing against something hard, and realized I had fallen asleep on the train. I wanted to get up and stretch, but my body was still too tired to listen to me, so instead I just stayed in my position silently.

"Hey, Al, does Rebecca remind you of anyone?" I heard Ed ask softly, and I frowned in surprise. If Amestrain was his mother tongue, then why was he speaking in ILT? It didn't make sense, especially combined with the fact that the brothers didn't really seem to trust me anymore. No matter though, whether he was talking in ILT or Amestrain, there was just something wonderfully comforting to Ed's voice, especially when I was in a sort of half-asleep state.

"Why, does she remind you of someone?" Al asked, and I exhaled slowly. If either one of them ended up saying I was like Ed, I figured I would probably jump up and strangle someone. Why couldn't people just realize that I was _not_ Edward Elric at all?

"Yeah, she does," Ed muttered as I exhaled slowly through my nose again, trying to calm myself. "She smiled at me the other day, and it… it reminded me of Mom," Ed said softly before ending with a sigh. "Yeah, crazy, I know. She's nothing like mom, right?"

"Well, actually…" Al said slowly, as if he were chewing over the thought in his head. "Now that you mention it, she does look a bit like Mom, especially when she's asleep and looking so peaceful like that." Al stopped talking for a moment, and Ed sighed heavily.

Trisha Elric? Now I was being compared to Ed's mom? Okay, it was a bit more plausible than being compared to Ed himself, but it was still in the Elric family! Everybody seemed to think I was capable of being an Elric when I sure didn't think I was.

"There's so much about her that I don't want to trust," Ed continued slowly, and I bit my lip as I realized that by now I was eavesdropping for the second time that day, which certainly wouldn't help the trust issue if Ed or Al found out. "But at the same time, part of me wants to trust her. I just… It's like I can't help it," Ed muttered, and was only met a small giggle from Al.

"What?" Ed demanded with an irritated edge to his voice.

"What, are you afraid of being friends with Rebecca?" Al asked amusedly, and I could feel Ed stiffen on the seat beside me.

"Well— I—" he stammered nervously. "But what about all her secrets? We shouldn't trust someone like her."

"And we don't have secrets?" Al said, and was greeted with silence. "If your gut says to trust her, then I say you should follow that sense for now."

"And what, forget about questioning her about what she knows about us?" Ed snorted. "I don't even know how she found out about whatever she may know, and I want to figure out who told her about us. Someone had to have told her."

"Maybe she doesn't know anything. If you see someone always walking around the house in a suit of armor, even when he's relaxing, wouldn't you be a little suspicious as well and start trying to make guesses as to what he's hiding? We don't really live in the time of kings and knights anymore."

"But—" Ed started, and then seemed unable to think of anything else to say.

"Besides, other people have known about us before," Al continued gently. "Rebecca doesn't seem like the type who would use it to try and blackmail us or just go proclaiming it to everyone on the street."

"I guess," Ed mumbled.

"And if we become friends with her anyway when she doesn't know anything about us, then we would have had to tell her sometime," Al persisted. "It's not something we can usually hide forever. But if she already knows and we become friends with her, then we never have to worry about telling her."

"Well, aren't you positive."

"Someone has to balance out my raincloud of a brother," Al laughed, and the two fell silent for a few minutes.

I slowly realized that I was no longer keeping my eyes closed because I was still tired, but because I wanted to hear what they were saying. It seemed funny to me how after growing up in a tiny apartment where you could always hear someone talking, eavesdropping didn't seem like that major of an offense to me. I had learned to just be careful what you say, since there could always be the chance of someone listening in. Hiding Christmas presents had always been a bit of a pain over the years.

"So why are we going back to Central?" Al asked finally, and I felt Ed's muscles tighten at the questions.

"Because we have to go back to Central sooner or later," Ed replied tensely. "Besides, we were going to go back to Central anyway, our train just got rerouted to Dublith. Funny how the trains have been having problems recently. I wonder what's causing it."

"What do you mean?" Al asked, and I listened even more intently. I knew my train from Resembool had been rerouted to Dublith, but I hadn't given it much thought.

"Apparently lots of trains have had to be rerouted to different towns recently," Ed said nonchalantly. "They don't say anything other than that there's 'some trouble with the tracks up ahead' and the train has to take a 'detour.' I haven't found out anything other than that, but I've got the feeling that something's going on. Maybe I can try digging up some info about that as well when we get to HQ."

"Do you think Colonel Mustang might know anything about it?" Al asked, and Ed made a sound that sounded like he didn't know and didn't very much care if Roy knew anything.

I, meanwhile, had felt like my heart had been dropped down an elevator chute. I had completely forgotten about Roy Mustang. He had talked to me over the phone, and I had even given him my name. What if he remembered my voice? Heck, what if Ed even just introduced me as "Rebecca Jacobson"? What would Roy do once he realized who I was?

I felt like I could melt into a puddle on the floor. I wasn't ready to go to Central and face him, I just wasn't. I needed more time. I needed some sort of… distraction that would take us away from Central for the time being, even if just for a day. What I needed was one of those train detours Ed and Al had just been talking about. I squeezed my eyes shut, desperately wishing the announcer would come on and tell us we wouldn't be going to Central after all.

The train suddenly screeched to a halt, and I frowned in surprise but continued trying to think of some sort of plan. I couldn't show up in Mustang's office without any sort of plan at all.

"I'm very sorry folks, but it seems that there's some trouble with the tracks up ahead," a voice over the intercom crackled. "We regret to inform you that this train will have to be detoured to Bakenhaert instead of going to Central as planned." I froze in my frantic planning as Ed let out a curse and the train started again.

"_Again_?" he groaned angrily. "If this keeps up we won't get to Central until my birthday!"

I stayed completely silent in my spot as I realized what had just happened. I had wished the train would get detoured, and then two seconds later, it had happened. Sure, there were some coincidental things that would occasionally happen in FMA, but that seemed way too convenient.

I almost wanted to sit up and tell Ed and Al about what had happened, but that would mean admitting to the part that I had been pretending to be asleep for at least a small portion of their conversation. I wasn't ready to admit to that, so instead I stayed in my curled position, lost in my thoughts that seemed to be going a mile a minute.

It felt like it had only been five minutes when I felt the train finally screech to a halt, but I had a feeling it had to have been at least half an hour. A hand then lightly touched my shoulder, and looked up in surprise at Ed, who was standing and holding his suitcase in one hand.

"Our train got detoured," he explained simply. "We have to get off here and see if we can buy tickets for another train to Central." I nodded, then stood up with a groan, slung my backpack over my shoulder and grabbed my suitcase.

"Don't forget my bike," I said softly, and Ed nodded while I was still half lost in thought.

Fifteen minutes later we found ourselves in front of the ticket booth with a bike, two suitcases a backpack and three people, one of them being bond to a suit of armor. All in all, we were taking up a lot of space, just wanted to get out of the line, and the people behind us seemed to want us out of the way as well.

"Here's your refund," the man at the ticket booth said, taking our three torn stubs and presenting Ed with a small bundle of cash.

"Now we need to buy three new tickets from here to Central," Ed said, quickly counting over the cash to be sure he had the right amount.

"Sorry buddy," the ticket man said, and Ed whipped his head up to look at him. "No more trains coming in today. This one wasn't even supposed to come in, but I got called down here because of the detour. This train station isn't going to be having any more passengers today."

"Why not?" Ed demanded, angrily banging his fist on the counter between him and the man.

"It's a holiday," the man shrugged simply. "Celebrating the anniversary of the town being founded. Everything's closed down until tomorrow. Except the inns, of course. You'll just have to get a room and wait until tomorrow."

"We could just follow the tracks to the next town," Ed said, obviously desperate for some way to keep moving toward their destination.

"Brother, maybe _we_ could on our own, but we've got Rebecca with us now," Al said gently, and I frowned. I was being treated like the delicate woman again.

"I can do it," I said determinedly, and Ed and Al turned to look at me in surprise. I just grinned at them in what I hoped was a reassuring manner. "Walking, no sweat. These boots were made for walking, right?" I laughed slightly, holding out my foot and pointing to my work boot. Ed raised an eyebrow, looked me over, then turned back to look at Al with a heavy sigh.

"Fine, we'll find an inn." Ed scowled, then picked his suitcase up with a huff and stormed off. Al quickly thanked the man for his trouble before picking up my suitcase and following Ed. I sighed, and gripped at the handlebars angrily. Ed thought I couldn't handle walking a few miles. And I knew it would be hard, but I would still push myself to do it. I wasn't a wimp. I sighed, then rolled my eyes, climbed onto my bike and rode after the two.

* * *

_**Lesson of the Day**__**—The Amestrian Language**__**: **_

"Am taiesh san Rebecca no gah meiketo."

Ahm tie-eh-sh sahn Ray-beck-ka no gah mike-et-oh

You're the type of girl who needs to be protected, Rebecca, **or** Rebecca is the type of girl who needs to be protected

The words for "you" or "girl" are not actually in this sentence, moreso implied through the name Rebecca and Ed's tone. A more literal translation would be along the lines of "Rebecca is a sort of person who requires protection." If the name Rebecca is removed, a pronoun would have to be added in its place.

Ed is showing his confusion over Rebecca by purposefully making his sentence brunt, but at the same time also using a softer speech by calling Rebecca by her first name rather than simply "she."

Rebecca would be pronounced with an accent. In America it would start with the "reh" sound, while in Amestrian it starts with the "ray" sound instead, and the r is also rolled more than in English. Hence why Ed nicknamed her "Ray."

* * *

_**Author's Note: **_

SCHOOL'S OUT! FOR! SUMMER! –dances- Mm, I'm happy now. Part of the problem with updating Wish Granted is that the chapters are so long I always have to keep getting up and leaving them uncompleted, maybe even read over huge chunks of what I've already written just to know where I am… etc, etc…

And I don't own The Wizard of Oz, obviously. I just ended up humming that while I was writing and then went "Hm, that fits strangely well…" So I ended up using it in this chapter. Strangely ironic, since if I hadn't changed Rebecca's name, she would have ended up being named "Dorothy," lol. Guess Ed's the scarecrow and Al's the tin man, haha. Which would make Winry a munchkin and Izumi would be Glinda…? Interesting drawing idea there, I might do that sometime… -scratches chin-

I was originally going to have Mustang in this chapter, but… muses sure do have a mind of their own. I went for a long time without being inspired at all for this, and then when I wanted to work on a different story, I suddenly got the urge to work on Wish Granted and couldn't really ignore it. Ah well, I'm sure none of you are too broken up over that, are ya? ;) I wrote this at a ridiculously fast speed compared to how slow it usually goes, so hopefully now I can go back to working on my contest entry, heh.

* * *

_**Review Replies (thanks all!):**_

**Kagami no Renkinjutsushi:** Haha, yeah, I'm looking forward to Roy as well. Too bad that muses have a mind of their own, for sure. As to whether he'd remember her voice or not, well, you'll just have to wait and see! ;) Yes, I know, I'm evil.

**agent000:** Yeah, I know, haha. When I wrote out the response for that chapter the first time, it was right after you reviewed, then I went over it again once I had finished the chapter and went "NaNoWriMo? Sheesh, I took waaaay too long." Funny how much just a bit of time can change things so much.

Haha, yeah, it was awesome to work the Amestrian language into this chap. Ed probably did have something to do with it, how did you ever guess? I just couldn't think of a reason for a real long time, and then BOOM! All of a sudden I have an idea. Coincidence? Well, I know what you think about those… ;)

Haha, that's good to know. I was always a bit worried about my pronunciation. And yeah, seeing Ed storm in there and talk to Roy will be pretty funny, lol. I hadn't even thought about that until you mentioned it. Now I just HAVE to do it, haha. XD

As for the geeks issue… Well, yes, it would be a country of geeks. Or she could be very, very lucky. Or I could be avoiding the question a bit… ho hum.

Haha, yeah, I suppose I have gotten to know the characters much better than the last time I wrote the chapter, And probably even more so now. I'm probably going to get to know them better and better as more time goes by if this keeps up. ;)

Thanks for the huge review… forever ago. It's nice to still have it around to respond to now, even though it takes me a while with these chapters. –hugs-

**Yakami:** Haha, well, I'm glad to hear it. Here's the update for you, sorry that the next one will take a bit before it gets out.

**Eloquent Liar:** -claps and transmutes scissors into a demonic looking teddy bear- 'Kay, go ahead. :D

**MyDarkSideHasAWayOfHerOwn:** Hey, looks to me like somebody changed their penname! And I'm glad you liked the chapter too. ;)

And I wouldn't really be surprised at the fact that Eckhart was some dude. I mean, look at her shoulders, those were ridiculous. Hm… well, would Hillary Clinton count as a crazy female in power?

**Abruptly Wandering:** Heh, yeah, my updates on this can take a bit of time, sadly. Sorry about that. I'm glad to know you liked it though, haha. I don't have much patience either, especially when it comes to fanfiction, so I totally get you there, heh.

Haha, and a Finnish polka? That sounds like a pretty song. :D

**Colonel Bastard:** Haha, well, I was thinking in regards to the song Vic sings. There isn't really any actual proof that Ed the character sings, it's just one of those things that "fits" with Ed, you know? It seems like the sort of thing he would do. But Rebecca was thinking back to the fact that Vic could sing.

And yes, cloth underwear. Got that from reading a book, surprisingly, all about periods, lol. It stuck around in my memory for a while, to say the least, heh. And yeah, I'm the type to just pick up books like that out of curiosity and read them all the way through.

Haha, mixing up characters now, are you? Rebecca certainly isn't Robyn, even if their names start with the same first letter. ;)

**AlmightySquirrelQueen:** Haha, thanks so much! I'm glad that the style of the chapter flows nicely, considering how long they can take to write. Sheesh.

I'm glad you like Rebecca as well, haha. And the Elrics will eventually warm up to her, of course, but who knows how long that might take? –smirks- I'm so evil, aren't I?

Thanks for reading and reviewing, here's the update! :D

**Zilo Sugarpill:** Someone gave her sugar, didn't they?

Ed: It's right in her name. Duh.

Yeah, she changed it to include sugar right in her name… Oh, great. Just great. Absolutely peachy. Is the china locked up?

Ed:…No.

-sighs- Oh well. But it's nice to know that the chapter got you so worked up. ;) I've had times where I've gone running around the room screaming when I'm _writing _the chapter, so I can relate pretty easily.

Ed: I'm going to put sleeping pills in her drink one of these days just to calm her down.

Meh! And yes, I did put a period in that. XD And nooo, it didn't have to do with the fact that every time I got inspired I was on my period, of course not.

Ed: Yeah, of course, and now I have to suffer because of it.

Suffer my eye. :P It's always bugged me how girls keep going on big adventures with Ed, but no one mentions periods! I mean, they had to have had different ways of dealing with it, and that would probably be a tad difficult for a girl to go through _while _also around Ed, I'm sure. So yes, Risty, I agree, periods stink on an adventure! XD

Ed: …I wouldn't know.

I would hope not… Heh, and betraying the Elric's trust just seemed to me like the most realistic thing that would happen with the characters. So yeah, it sucks, but it's uh… for zee good of zee storee!

Ed: …

Shup. And yes, she'll get to meet the "military peeps." Somehow, when I read that, I thought of a blue peep with black hair. Rather strange image, I must admit, and now I wanna draw it!

Ed: I wanna eat it. Starting with its head. And I'll chew slowly. Or maybe I'll roast it and make it into a s'more.

Very nice. As for Envy though… Well, she's already met him, and she's traveling with the Elric brothers, so she's bound to meet him again. He is very evil indeed. But at least she's hanging around nice strong Ed so she has protection!

Ed: Meh.

Or she has… Zilo? Maybe Ed won't be quite so helpful… Anyway, thanks for all the positive feedback and awesomely long review once again! :D I'm glad you like the ILT thing, though it's frustrating to try and figure out another language from scratch!

Ed: And why take five billion dollars in Monoply money when I can transmute gold?

Shush, Ed. –slaps hand over his mouth- Thanks for reading and reviewing, here's the update! :D

Ed: -talking through AA's hand- Mand don'f call meh Edo!

**Meggy:** Thanks so much! I try really hard to make Rebecca as normal as I possibly can, though it can be quite difficult sometimes. Along with making the chapters long, but in my mind, it's worth it. :D

Here's the update, sorry it took a bit!

**kiseki.megami:** Haha, well, I'm glad you finally worked yourself up to reviewing, I appreciate the feedback I get from every single one! :D And thanks, I do try pretty hard to make Rebecca believable when I want so hard to make her perfect sometimes. It's quite the task at times. ;) Though yes, she can be pretty brave when you put it like that. Or maybe landing butt-first in Amestris has a way of bucking people up? XD

And finally, someone said that Amestrian bugged them! When I wrote that chapter, I was expecting everyone to write in saying how weird it is and all, but instead I get a bunch of reviews saying it's awesome instead. Really, I'm a bit partial to Ed and Al speaking English myself. But it also doesn't make complete sense when you think about it, so there's ILT and Amestrain and all that jazz. Thanks so much for speaking your mind! :D

Thanks for reading and reviewing, here's the update for ya! ;)

**anime.storm:** -smashes air guitar on floor- Oh, wait, not that kind of rock? Oh, alright then. Well, thanks very much then. I'm glad so many people love Rebecca so much! :D

Here's the update, sorry it took me a while! –sighs-

**Fadedphantom:** Haha, good to know, good to know.

I figured some girls would probably guess it from me saying that right at the top. XD I mean, what else might there be to scar poor boys? Bra shopping? I might just pick the period over that.

And yes, they should say goodbye to Izumi… -scratches chin- Congratulations, you gave me the inspiration for the first part of this story, so give yourself a pat on the back!

Haha, well, keep guessing! It's meant to be confusing right now though, as more things unravel it might get clearer, but it's nice to know I still have the readers trying to figure things out! ;)

Here's the update, thanks for reading and reviewing!

**Akatsuki's Flower:** Okay, okay, here ya go! Please don't bite me!


	8. Chapter 8

_**Chapter Eight – Concerning Disguises, Boyfriends, and a White Room**_

"I guess this will do for tonight," Ed sighed as he threw his suitcase on one of the beds in the room. I glanced around and noticed that there were three people and only two beds. Of course, knowing the Fullmetal Alchemist story, I knew that Al didn't really need a bed. But I also knew that if I wanted to make them less suspicious of me, I had to pretend I knew nothing.

"This isn't going to work," I said slowly, trying my best to act confused. "There are three of us and only two beds. We can't all have a bed, not unless someone shares." Ed raised his eyebrows, and then he and Al turned to look at one another before Ed looked back at me.

"Well, Al would take up a whole bed on his own, so the only two left to share a bed would be me and you," Ed said with a glint in his eyes. "And if you try to climb in bed with me, I'll punch you in the jaw." His right hand clenched into a fist, and I paled. He hadn't actually shown or told me about his automail, but I still knew how much a punch from that hand would hurt.

"It's alright, I'll… uh, sleep on the floor," Al jumped in quickly.

"Okay," I agreed easily, knowing that the floor wouldn't be at all worse than a bed for Al. "I want the bed by the window then."

"No way," Ed scowled, crossing his arms across his chest. "I want the bed by the window. You take the one next to the other wall." I could hear metal creak as Al shook his head exasperatedly.

"How about you take the one by the wall and just transmute yourself a window?" I grinned, and Ed's frown deepened.

"It's not the same," he said simply. "Even if I did transmute a window, it would just be looking into the room next door." I bit my lip and looked from Ed to the window, to Al, and then back to Ed again. Was a window really that important? I sighed and knew it was time for me to be the more mature one and simply let Ed have the bed he wanted. I was the one who was the prisoner anyway.

"You want to see some alchemy so bad, I'll show you some alchemy," Ed said just as I opened my mouth to say he could have the window. He took his suitcase, set it on the bed, then opened it and pulled out a pair of boots identical to his own.

"Alright, now give me your boots," he said, turning to look at me. I wondered briefly what he was going to do, but sat on the bed and obediently took off my boots anyway. Ed frowned slightly and turned them over a few times once I had handed them to him. He bent back the tongue of the boot and peered closely at the label that I knew was extremely worn out.

"What the hell does 'Made in China' mean? Where is this 'China'?" he asked, pulling his eyes away from the boot to stare at me. I gulped nervously and fidgeted in my seat. I had thought something like that would be more likely to be printed on the bottom of a boot, not the tag that told the size.

"Um, I'm not quite sure," I said slowly. "I think that China is some guy's last name and he put it on the boot so everyone knew it was his work." I breathed a sigh of relief for being able to come up with something so quickly that actually made a bit of sense, but Ed still looked like he didn't quite believe me.

"China sure is an interesting last name," Al said with an amused tone to his voice, and I turned and grinned back at him. I knew that if he found "China" to be a funny last name, I could have him cracking up with some of the other last names I had known in my world.

Ed rolled his eyes and then looked over at me. "Hey, Rebecca, how big are your feet?" he asked bluntly, and I blinked in bewilderment. Ed sighed and then sat down on the floor, motioning for me to do the same.

"Stick out your foot," Ed told me simply as he pulled off his boots and stuck out his right leg. I shrugged and stuck out my left foot, grinning childishly at the hippie-like flowers on my sock.

Ed then slid his foot across the floor and pressed it firmly against my foot, lining up our two heels perfectly. All I had known from Ed had been light brushes or a gentle shake of the shoulders. Compared to those, his foot pressing against mine seemed so different, so much more purposeful. It sounded silly even in my head, but it was _the_ sexiest foot I had ever come across.

Though mostly the only socked feet I had ever went around touching had belonged to girls.

"Perfect," Ed grinned, leaning forward to look at our two feet. "We're the same size. That makes things a whole lot easier." He then pulled back and stood up before looking down at me. "Why are you grinning like that?" he asked me, and I snapped out of my strange thoughts before standing up as well.

"Just thinking about something," I shrugged carelessly, and Ed shrugged as well before crouching back down and pushing all three pairs of boots together so they were all side by side. He then stuck his tongue out the side of his mouth before grinning and clapping his hands together.

Next thing I knew, blue light was flooding my eyes. I tried to continue looking at the boots to try and see what Ed was doing, but it proved pointless considering how bright the light was and I ended up turning my head away anyway. When the light finally died down, I turned back to look at the boots, though small orange spots still danced across my vision.

What I saw was that not three, but two pairs of boots sitting on the ground. One pair looked like Ed's normal pair of boots, while the other was a pair of strange black boots that seemed insanely huge. It looked like the sole of the strange black boots was about three inches high, and then had a thick strap going across the top of the foot. Ed grinned before picking up the new boots and holding them out to me.

"Go ahead, try them on," he said simply, and I frowned.

"Won't those make me even taller than I am now?" I asked in confusion as I stared at the enormously high boots. "Why would you want something like that?"

"Just do it, Rebecca," Ed said with a roll to his eyes. I thought I caught a mischievous glint to his eyes, and I hesitantly took the boots from him. I didn't think Ed would make boots that would eat my feet alive just so he could be taller, but I wasn't entirely sure either. I didn't even know why he had included his own boots in the transmutation, considering that they looked exactly the same as before.

To my surprise, my foot sank much lower than I thought it would when I pulled on the boot. It felt like I had gone straight down to a half-inch sole at best when I had been expecting to stop three inches above the ground. I glanced back down at my shoes in surprise and saw that it still appeared like they had a three-inch thick sole, though it sure didn't feel like it.

"It makes you look like you're trying hard to be tall when you're not actually," Ed explained simply as he tugged on his own pair of boots. "This way people will chalk up any insane height to a pair of ridiculous boots rather than genetics."

"Oh," I grinned, and looked down at my new boots in appreciation. It really was a clever design, and to top it off, I didn't have any laces to tie with the new boots Ed had made. "So then what about your boots? You included them in the transmutation as well," I said curiously, trying to figure out what he might have changed with his own boots.

"I just added a bit more height to the bottom," Ed grinned simply as he shrugged on his other boot and stood up so he could compare his height with me. After losing a bit of height from my previous boots, and Ed gaining a bit of height from his new boots, we were closer to being level than we had been before, but I was still taller than Ed. I knew Ed wouldn't admit to it, but we were probably closer to the half-a-head difference he had claimed we had earlier.

"That's better," Ed grinned as he compared our height. "Now all I have to do is keep finding ways to shrink you and make me grow quicker, and I'll be the taller one in no time." I laughed and nearly replied with a "You wish" but bit my tongue quickly. Ed actually seemed to be in a good mood, and I sure didn't want to spoil it.

"So are we going to go eat dinner now?" I asked as a hunger pang attacked my stomach ruthlessly. I hadn't had breakfast or lunch because we had been so eager to get on the train, and I was hoping that Ed would be even hungrier than I was.

"Not quite yet," Ed said with an almost evil grin, and I sighed heavily. "I've still got a few more tricks to make you look more Amestrian. Al, would you go see if the innkeeper has some of that… that black… pencil… thing… that women put around their eyes?"

"Eyeliner?" I laughed, and Ed snapped and turned to look at me.

"Yeah, eyeliner!" he said excitedly. "You wouldn't happen to have any of your own, would you?"

"No way," I snorted. "I barely wear makeup as it is, and I'm horrible at putting on eyeliner." Ed sighed and turned back to look at Al.

"I'm on it," Al laughed before turning and leaving the room. Ed then sighed and ran a hand through his bangs before turning and walking into the small bathroom attached to the room. I licked my lips and sat on one of the beds to wait for his return. I wasn't completely sure what he was going to do to try and make me look more Amestrian, but I sure hoped it worked.

I looked up in surprise when a loud clap suddenly came from the direction of the bathroom, and hoped desperately that Ed wasn't trying to unclog the toilet with alchemy, or worse ideas I didn't even want to think about.

But instead the door slowly opened and Ed came out carefully holding a bowl full of a strange looking liquid. He then sat down on the opposite bed and carefully held it out towards me. The water—or whatever it was, because it didn't look too much like water—had a strange yellowish sheen to it that made a shudder run up my spine.

"Hang your hair in it," Ed told me, inching forward slowly so I would be able to reach the bowl. I frowned and looked back at the bowl full of the strange yellow liquid.

"Hair dye?" I asked, my thoughts flicking back to the episode where Ed had dyed his hair black. The liquid had looked very similar, but it had been dark instead of light.

"Nah, it's much less potent than real hair dye would be," Ed shrugged. "This is only transmuted water. It'll last for a bit, but we'll have to keep reapplying it if we want to keep you looking blond, so we should probably try to find some real hair dye if we can."

"Why do I have to look blond?" I sighed, glancing back down at the bowl of golden liquid.

"Because blond is a more common hair color than brown here," Ed said simply. "Like I said, you really stick out, Rebecca. You need to do everything you can to blend in here, or otherwise someone else is going to try to snatch you up, and believe me, they'll probably be a shitload worse than I am, okay?"

I bit my lip nervously and looked back at the bowl. I knew Ed was right; even if he was still mad-ish at me, he at least wasn't torturing me or keeping me in handcuffs. He was even trying to help me, in his own Ed sort of way. I doubted that too many other people would try to do that if they took me into custody. I sighed and carefully flipped my hair over the top of my head and lowered it into the yellow water.

The water was cold, but still managed to have a strange touch of warmth to it. Almost like someone blowing on my face on a warm day, but it was my hair instead of my skin. I shivered as the dye flowed up all the way to my scalp, and then pulled away from the bowl.

"You really look better as a brunette. Brunette suits you better," Ed said with a small laugh as he looked me over. I scowled and crossed my arms with a huff. I wanted to tell Ed that he didn't look so awesome with black hair instead of blond either, but I knew that would give away more than I wanted to let him know.

"Alright, I've got some eyeliner," Al declared as he came back into the room. "She even said we could keep this since she has more, but she wants us to pay for it before we leave. And why'd you make Rebecca dye her hair blond, Brother?" Al said in one long string, and I practically laughed aloud. I guessed that it probably helped that he didn't have to take a breath between sentences.

"Because she'll blend in better this way," Ed sighed.

Al shook his head and then handed the eyeliner to Ed before looking back at me and cheerfully saying, "You look nice, Rebecca." I smiled at him appreciatively while hoping I would be able to look at myself in a mirror soon, since I had no idea what I looked like as a blond.

"Okay, now take off your glasses," Ed said as he took the cap off the eyeliner and leaned towards me. I nervously pulled my glasses off my nose and placed them on the bed beside me. Ed then grabbed my chin firmly with his right hand, and pressed the eyeliner against the edge of my eye with his left hand.

I knew that he wasn't able to feel my chin with his right hand, but I sure could feel it. It definitely felt different from a normal hand, more firm and hard. Every time I squirmed just a bit, he would squeeze his right hand to keep me still, and I would immediately stop. Those squeezes kept scaring me into thinking that he would crack my jaw—and I knew he easily could—even though I knew he had much more control than that and wouldn't hurt someone like that just for squirming.

His flesh foot had managed to be both soft and unyielding at the same time, but his automail hand was simply unyielding. It was like a wall, only shaped like a hand and moveable. The softness I could pick up on him was from the way he lightly applied the eyeliner, like a butterfly brushing at the sides of my eyes.

Well, actually, to say his hand was _completely_ unyielding is a bit wrong. It was very solid, for sure, and that was probably what he wanted to portray. But something about his automail reminded me of an old friend. Like a computer that's been used for so many years that it somehow manages to have a comfortable feel to it. His hand was soft in its own, different way.

"Not too shabby, if I say so myself," Ed finally grinned as he pulled away from me and released my jaw. I flexed my mouth experimentally to stretch it after he had kept it in the same position for so long.

"That is pretty good, Brother," Al said as he looked me over as well. "Her eyes actually do look a bit more Amestrian than they used to."

"Well, thank you, thank you very much," Ed said as he stood up and gave a theatrical bow. I rolled my eyes amusedly and then reached for my glasses to put them on. Ed caught the movement out of the corner of his eye and turned to face me with a frown.

"Keep those things off, Rebecca," he said sternly, and I paused in my action, but looked at him curiously. Ed simply sighed and rolled his eyes. "Oh, come on. The first thing I saw you in was a shirt that actually had words printed on it, and then there's your bike, which has enough gears to make me think it can go ten different speeds if you want, and then you've got those fancy-pants glasses. They're all things that only stuck-up rich kids own, and they _all_ make you stick out. You really should stop wearing those glasses if you don't want guys promising to marry you only so they can reach your fortune."

"Oh," I said slowly with a slightly amused smile. In simply going from my world to the FMA one, I had become rich instead of poor with things I had gotten cheap. I set my glasses to the side just as my stomach growled loudly. "Um… time for dinner, then?" I said with a nervous laugh, and Ed snorted and nodded.

"How do I look?" I asked, standing up and patting at my new hair and feeling strangely naked without my glasses.

"Different," Al replied simply. "You look very different."

"I bet," I muttered, trying to imagine how I looked with blond hair instead of brown.

"Hopefully it's a more Amestrian look than before," Ed said as he looked me over twice. "There's a little mirror in the bathroom, if you're curious." I nodded appreciatively and headed towards the small bathroom.

At first glance I actually mistook myself for someone else. I didn't think that the well developed, downright _pretty_ blond in the mirror could actually be me. I looked like one of the blond girls at school who could wear anything they wanted and manage to make it look amazing.

Well, alright, I didn't think I looked _that_ good, but it was quite a difference. I smoothed out my hair and then peered closer at my eyes. Ed had used the eyeliner to make my eyes look pointier on the edges than they really were. More like his eyes. More Amestrian.

I backed away from the mirror and looked myself over again. It was a huge change. I was definitely used to the brown hair, but the blond didn't seem as horrible as I had originally thought. Maybe if I managed to get used to it—

"_You really look better as a brunette. Brunette suits you better."_

I wrinkled my nose at the thought. What had Ed meant by that? Did he think that I was prettier with brown hair? Or maybe just less ugly? I ground my teeth in frustration. What had he _meant_?

"You didn't die in there, did you, Rebecca?" Ed called through the door. I sighed and looked myself over one last time.

"No, I didn't die," I called back and turned the doorknob slowly. "I'm coming, hold your horses."

* * *

"So," I said slowly as Ed and I walked down the street, trying desperately to fill the silence that had managed to settle over us.

After we had been served dinner by the very kind innkeeper, Al had offered to help her with the dishes. The innkeeper was very grateful, and was then telling us all about the festivities in town to celebrate the town being founded about fifty years ago. The stores were all closed, but there was a large tent sent up in an empty field that had food, music and dancing that was all free of charge. Somehow, after telling us about the tent, the innkeeper managed to convince Ed and I to go and have "fun" while Al offered to stay behind and help finish up the dishes he had started.

Though Ed had spent the entire time while we had been walking looking upwards as if he couldn't stand to even look at me, and hadn't said a word. I wasn't quite sure how to have "fun" with someone who seemed so intent on ignoring me.

"So?" Ed repeated, finally managing to actually turn and look at me.

"So, um… You're… a State Alchemist, huh?" I said with a nervous laugh, desperately trying to hold his attention rather than fall into silence again.

"That's me," Ed said with a small grin. "And you… you said you have a boyfriend, right?"

"Yeah," I said slowly, my thoughts flicking back homeward.

"Think he misses you?"

"Probably," I said with a slight laugh. "He usually bombards me with questions if I just stay home sick from school for a day or two."

"Ah," Ed nodded, and then looked up from scuffing his boots in the dirt to look me in the eye again. "D'you miss him?"

I opened my mouth to answer that of course I did, he was my _boyfriend_ after all, but then realized that it wasn't really true. I had missed my family for sure, but I hadn't really given much thought to Joe.

"No," I said slowly, and Ed raised an eyebrow. I nearly laughed at the look it created. "I just… When we were 'just friends' we could actually talk together for hours, and I always thought we were having a nice time. Now that we're dating, whenever we get together, he simply wants to eat my face off." Ed made a face and looked back up at the sky.

"I dunno," I shrugged. "He just… always wants to talk about himself, you know? If I tell him about my problems, he maybe gives me a hug, tells me it'll be alright, and then if I talk about it more, he'll just say "Uh huh" and "sure" and not look interested at all."

"Oh," Ed said softly, and I sighed.

"You wanna know what I think?" he finally said after a minute.

"Yes, please," I said eagerly with a smile, looking up from twiddling with my hands.

"Well, people use dating as a way to figure out if they want to marry someone or not, right? Maybe they use it for other reasons as well, but that's usually what it is, right?" Ed started, and I nodded in agreement. "Maybe this is just my own stupid way of looking at the world, but I tend to think marriage should be a partnership. If you're going to be a family together, you need to be able to help each other out equally. Like balancing an equation. It just won't work if one side's carrying more of the load than the other."

"Equivalent Exchange?" I suggested with a smile, and Ed brightened and looked directly at me.

"Exactly!" he grinned. "Where he falls, you should be able to walk, and where you fall, he should be able to walk. That way you're always able to have one of you walking forward rather than having points in your life where you're both lying on the ground."

"What if one of you does something horrible that makes you both fall, though?" I said slowly as I thought, not really remembering that it was Edward Elric of all people I was talking to. "Say, for example, that I get married, and we're living happily until one day I find out my husband was cheating on me. Wouldn't we both fall then?"

"If you both fall like that, then the marriage can't continue forward anyway, and why continue the marriage if you can't manage to pick yourselves up and keep moving forward? Otherwise you're just going to be stuck in a rut for years, or maybe even the rest of your life if you don't try to fix anything," Ed said, his expression darkening a bit.

I winced and suddenly remembered that of course Ed wouldn't much like the thought of a husband cheating or doing something similar. He still thought it was Hoenheim's fault for making his mom sick because he had left, though I had the sneaking suspicion that she might have gotten sick whether he had left or not, or maybe she had even been sick before he had left. I wondered briefly whether cancer existed in Amestris or not.

"Maybe it's just me, but I think you should break up with this guy," Ed added after a minute of silence. "He sounds like a jerk to me."

"He's not a jerk," I defended quickly. Ed gave me a look, so I sighed and added, "Well, at least when I'm not dating him."

"Exactly," Ed said triumphantly. "Why date a jerk?"

"I know," I sighed. "It's just… he's always carrying my books and such and acting so sweet… I don't like the thought of breaking up with him and breaking the poor boy's heart."

"There's a reason it's called _breaking_ up," Ed scoffed, and I smiled slightly. "Besides, you just said 'I know' to the fact that he's a jerk, but then you defend him by saying he's sweet? Something's messed up in your logic, Ray."

"I—" I started, but then suddenly froze and went back over his last line in my head. "What did you say?" I asked breathlessly, and Ed looked at me confusedly.

"That you need your head checked?"

"No, you— after that— You called me Ray," I said with a grin. "I thought you only gave nicknames to your friends." Ed froze, then crossed his arms and huffed.

"It must have slipped," he said quickly. "Because we're definitely _not_ friends."

"Oh," I sighed, feeling as if I had suddenly been pushed off a fifty story building. I sighed, knowing I should have known better than to think Ed would admit to being friends, but my hopes had still gone up anyway. Ed went back to looking up at the sky, and silence settled over us once more.

"So why are we going to this festival thingy anyway?" Ed asked after a minute and turned back to look at me.

"I dunno," I shrugged, looking down at my feet even though I could feel Ed staring at the side of my head. "For the free food?"

"I thought you would want to go for the dancing," Ed muttered. "You seem like such a… a carefree girl who would like that sort of thing." I couldn't help but laugh slightly at his words, even though his comment from a minute earlier still stung.

"Nope, I don't even know how to dance properly," I grinned, turning up to look at him. "I could always try making it up, but that's way too embarrassing, and I'm horrible at it anyway."

"You don't know how to dance?" Ed asked, looking surprised. I shook my head as we walked into the flickering lights of the huge tent. A song that sounded very similar to folk music washed over us, and in the center of the tent a large group of people danced happily.

"Well, let's check out that free food you mentioned then," Ed shrugged nonchalantly. I nearly laughed and followed behind him to the huge table of food.

The food smelled wonderful, but what surprised me was that it was covered almost entirely in bread. There was a small bit of meat and condiments to assemble sandwiches, but none of it could compare to the bread. There were loaves of braided bread, wheat bread, white bread, dinner rolls, muffins, and even some cake and cookies for dessert. It seemed like a town that was absolutely in love with carbs. I shrugged and then grabbed a couple blueberry muffins that looked promising.

"Bakenhaert is a town pretty well known for its baking," Ed explained, seeming to notice my confused expression. He was expertly putting together a sandwich while he explained, even though he had just eaten lamb at the inn. "I guess they use some of this free food as a way to promote their goods to any visitors who come for the celebration."

I nodded and watched how he held the sandwich carefully with his left hand rather than his right. I guessed that it was in order to prevent himself from crushing the soft bread with his right hand, which would be an easy thing to do and ruin the sandwich. My thoughts flicked back to when he had held my chin with his automail hand and I realized that other people who knew about automail might have guessed that Ed had at least an automail hand by that point.

"Hey, Ed," I started slowly, and he turned to look at me. "Your right arm," I continued, and could see him visibly stiffen. "It's… it's automail, isn't it?"

"Yeah," he muttered softly and looked back down to his sandwich. "How'd you figure that one out?"

"When you grabbed my chin," I said, biting my lip as I watched him. "It was much harder than a normal hand should be. More like metal than flesh. How…" I bit my lip, wondering if I was pushing my luck or not, but continued, "How did you lose it?"

"An accident when I was a kid," Ed said softly with a small wince. He then looked back up at me and carefully added, "In Ishval."

_Lie._

I knew myself from FMA that Ed often used Ishval as an easy excuse to explain his automail. Tue, he may have lost his limbs from an accident when he was younger, but I knew that it had been in Resembool, not Ishval.

"Oh, that must have sucked," I said sympathetically, and Ed simply nodded silently. "Ishval's a pretty nasty place to be nowadays, what were you doing there when you were just a kid?" I pressed, and Ed winced again. I knew I was getting to him.

"I… I don't really like talking about it," Ed said slowly, and I sighed and closed my eyes. So much for that plan. He didn't seem like he was going to reveal even the tiniest of clues to me until he felt like it.

The rest of the night was much more boring. It mostly passed without incident, though Ed was very quiet. A few of the townspeople tried to come up and talk to us, asked us whether or not we liked the town, where we were going, and similar questions. None of them ended up staying long, since neither Ed nor I seemed to really be in the mood for useless chit-chat with strangers and weren't exactly putting out pleasant vibes. I tried to talk with Ed more when other people weren't around, but he had seemed to shut down and withdraw into himself after I had asked about his automail.

So instead, for the most part, I listened to the music and watched everybody else have a good time. I spotted one girl on the other side of the tent who looked like she wasn't having the greatest time, and briefly toyed with the idea of going over and introducing myself to her, but never worked myself up to actually do it. She looked almost like she was Chinese, but from what I knew of Ed's world, I decided she had to be Xingese instead.

I was just starting to create a story of why she was so down at a celebration when Ed stood up and dragged me back to the inn. I guessed that Al had to still be having a nice time with the innkeeper, since he wasn't in the room, but I then realized how tired I was, flopped on my non-window bed and fell asleep almost instantly.

* * *

"Where the hell are we?" a familiar voice said as I blinked my eyes open and found myself in a large white room. I frowned in confusion and stood up, not remembering the inn looking at all like the white room.

It was a large room that was entirely white and circular shaped as well. Around the wall were white doors that all looked similar to one another. The room reminded me slightly of how I had imagined the first room in the Department of Mysteries to look like in the fifth Harry Potter book, though there it had been black instead of white.

I glanced around and saw there were other people in the room as well. Most of them seemed familiar, but I couldn't quite place them, but I was glad to see that Ed was there, so I at least had one person I knew.

"Ed?" I said cautiously as I walked over to him. "Do you know where we are?"

"Ray?" he said, seeming surprised as he looked over at me. "You're here too? I thought that— Never mind. No clue where we are though. You alright?" I nodded, biting my lip as I looked around the room, and was suddenly surprised by a pair of strong arms wrapping themselves around me.

"I'm glad you're okay," Ed whispered, and his breath tickled at my ear. I grinned like a kid with twenty dollars in a candy store and hugged him back, feeling like Ed's arms had to be the safest place in the world.

"How are we going to get out of here?" I said worriedly, burying my face in Ed's shoulder. It felt better to just try blocking out the strange white room and instead only see soft red fabric everywhere.

"There's got to be a way," Ed replied softly, and I could feel his chest vibrate as he spoke. I grinned even more and relaxed slightly at the sound of his voice. Something about it just comforted me so easily. "I mean, there's all these doors, maybe one of them leads out of here."

"Maybe," I said slowly, thinking over the idea. I nearly cried aloud when Ed then pulled away from me, though he kept his hands on my shoulders. I whimpered and almost curled back into his arms, but resisted the temptation, and Ed laughed amusedly.

"What, you don't want me to let go?" he said with a grin, and I bit my lip nervously. I found that it was much harder to try and lie with those golden eyes staring so intently at me, so I simply nodded with a sigh.

"Good, because I don't really want to let go either," he murmured as he once again wrapped me in his arms. I relaxed again and buried my head in his shoulder.

"Look, Ray," Ed said after a minute, and I nearly jumped at the nickname. I almost wanted to point it out to him again, but I sure didn't want him telling me we weren't friends again either.

"I… I would like nothing more than to be able to hug you and say sweet things to you like this all the time," Ed continued, and I felt like I had suddenly been kicked over the moon. Ed wanted to do those sorts of things with me? All the time?

"But you know it won't work," he continued, and my heart suddenly dropped. "We… We're from entirely different worlds, Ray. And you've got a family waiting for you somewhere. You can't just give up your family for a loser like me."

"Loser?" I choked out, feeling like a boa constrictor was wrapped around my throat.

"And besides," Ed continued, not seeming to notice what I said. "You've got a boyfriend waiting for you as well. I go and give you a whole lecture about relationships being a partnership; you can't go picking someone like me who will just drag you down. You're too good for that, Ray."

"Ed, I—" I started, but was suddenly cut off by a blast of cold wind hitting the two of us full force. I could feel Ed shiver and look up, but somehow he managed to hold onto me even tighter.

As suddenly as it had started, the cold wind stopped, and I looked up from the safety of Ed's shoulder to try and see what it was. A small black haired girl and a blond boy that looked almost like he could be related to Ed stood by one the doors, both leaning heavily on it to try and close the last inch it was open.

Ed let go of me and went to go investigate, and I nearly cried out in despair at the loss of his warm arms around me. I quickly ran up and slipped my hand into his to try and keep at least some of the safe, warm feeling, and he made no protest to it, so I figured it was alright. I smiled to myself and weaved my fingers through his, and he stiffened slightly, but then after a moment grinned and squeezed my hand in reply.

"Hey," the black haired girl said with a smile when she saw us. "My name's Robyn, and this is Mark," she said, pointing to the blond beside her. I jerked slightly at the name Robyn, remembering back to the black haired character I had used in one of my stories that had the same name. She seemed to notice my surprise and merely winked at me in reply.

"I'm Ed, and she's Rebecca," Ed said, and Robyn nodded as if she had known us for years. "What the hell was up with that cold air, anyway?"

"Oh, that," Robyn said dismissively. "Nothing much, just the abominable snowman." Ed looked at Robyn as if she were crazy, while I tried to stifle my giggles. Mark then sighed and stepped forward.

"We tried opening one of these doors," he explained to us. "There's a huge snowy wasteland out there, and when we opened the door, a gust of wind blew through. It might be the way out, but there sure is no way of seeing through all that snow. I was figuring on going through. Either of you two want to come with me?"

"I'll go," I volunteered before I knew the words had come out of my mouth. Mark grinned at me, and I could feel Ed's hand clench.

"Then I'm going too," he said stubbornly. Mark nodded in approval and then looked over at Robyn.

"Well, I guess we should open the door again," he said with a sigh. Robyn merely grinned and gave him a thumbs up. I glanced around and noticed that we were all outfitted for trekking through very cold weather. We hadn't been dressed in that before— No, we had always been wearing those clothes, I decided. I then marveled at the fact that we hadn't been in cold weather, but yet we hadn't been sweating from the heat of the clothes either. It seemed like they were some expertly designed coats.

"Alright, good luck," Robyn said with a grunt as she opened the door and a blast of cold air hit us once more. Ed and Mark both walked through the door into the artic wilderness that stretched out in front of us. I took a deep breath and stepped forward as well, Robyn patting my shoulder as I did. I hurried forward and stood between both Ed and Mark, who were both gaping at the wall we had just walked through.

"Holy shit," Ed breathed, and Mark seemed to nod in agreement.

"What?" I said, not sure of what was such a big deal.

"Look at that," Ed said, pointing to the wall. "If this were really outdoors, it would stop and then there would be sky, just like any other building. But this… The wall becomes the sky. Or rather, the ceiling. This is all just one huge room."

"Whoa," I breathed, looking around the room. It was so big, the building had to be enormous in order to fit it. I couldn't even see the other walls. Definitely Department of Mysteries. First I was in the FMA world, then I was in the Harry Potter world.

"Well then, in that case, let's just follow this wall and see if we can reach the other side of the room," Mark said as he glanced around. "That way, we'll be able to find our way back easily if we need to." Ed and I both nodded, then the three of us put our left hands on the wall and began to walk slowly through the snow.

It felt like we had been walking for hours. There wasn't really any way to tell time properly, since none of us had a watch, and there was no sun to see rise or set in the strange room. My feet were incredibly sore, and my cheeks had gone numb long ago so that I could no longer feel too much of anything other than cold pain in my face.

I heard something behind me move, and after not hearing anything move the entire time we had been walking, I curiously turned around. At first I couldn't see anything through the snow, but then a loud growl came from in front of me and revealed the large pink mouth of a polar bear. I jumped backwards with a gasp and fell against Ed just as Mark jumped forward to protect me.

The bear slashed with its huge paw, and made contact with Mark's chest. Mark screamed and fell backwards against the snow, and for once there was a color besides white as red blood stained the ground.

I lunged towards Mark, but Ed grabbed me and began running back in the direction we had come. I looked behind us and saw that the polar bear was too busy with Mark to come after us, though Mark wasn't fighting at all. He was dead.

We reached the door much quicker than when we had gone the opposite direction. Ed panted and pounded on the door with his fists for a moment before it slowly swung inwards. He grabbed my hand again and pulled me inside, and Robyn quickly closed the door behind us.

As soon as I was in the relative safety of the circular white room again, I finally broke down and began crying while Robyn asked what had happened. I could hear Ed begin to explain but I wasn't paying attention to him. Mark had died, just to protect me, when I hadn't even known him very well.

Finally I felt that wonderfully protective pair of arms wrap around me once more, and I gladly pressed into Ed shoulder once more, letting the tears flow freely. I felt horrible for what had happened to Mark, though I wasn't entirely sure why I felt _so_ horrible.

"I killed him," I whispered softly, and no one contradicted me, or at least, I didn't pay attention to anyone who did.

"Rebecca."

"I killed him," I repeated, and then Ed pulled away to look at me.

"Rebecca."

The voice sounded like Ed, but his lips weren't moving.

"It's all my fault," I choked out, and my heart fell even farther as Ed looked at me. He was looking at me as if I were some small animal in a zoo to be pitied. I bit my lip and tried to hold back more tears.

"Rebecca, wake up already."

The white room faded into nothing and I slowly opened my eyes. The room of the inn we had been staying at slowly came into focus, along with a pair of familiar golden eyes hovering above me. But instead of being soft like they had been only moments ago in my dream, now they were back to the normal hardened look I was used to on Ed.

"I killed him," I whispered, and Ed's face rippled into confusion.

"Killed who?"

"I—" I started, and then stopped as I realized I couldn't remember. "I'm not sure. It wasn't a good dream… But there was something nice about it too." I said slowly as I sat up and struggled to figure out what had happened in the dream. But I found that the more I reached for details, the more they seemed just out of reach.

"Alright, well, get dressed, okay?" Ed said, and I looked up to see that he looked tense.

"What's wrong?" I asked, swinging out of bed and grabbing my boots.

"Al never came back last night," Ed muttered softly, and I could feel my eyes widen. "He's missing. We have to go find him."

* * *

_**Lesson of the Day**__**—The Amestrian Language**__**: **_

Bakenhaert

Bah-ken-hair-t

The name "Bakenhaert" is based off the two German words "baken" and "hertz" which mean "to bake" and "heart." So theoretically, the city of Bakenhaert would be the "heart" of the baking industry.

* * *

_**Author's Note: **_

Heh heh heh… Sorry folks, I'm aware that this is more of a cliffhanger than I usually leave with Wish Granted, but this chapter was getting HUGE! I had to stop at some point… The words were _really_ flowing for once, which was a beautiful thing, but I didn't want to go on for forty pages either. T.T

And I actually did have that dream a long time ago. Now, granted, I did use a bit my creative skills to change it a bit, but the basic idea of being trapped in a room like that and then trekking through an artic wasteland really was a dream of mine, back when I was about eight. Pretty much everyone in the room died in the end too, except for lil' ol' me, so it scared the pants off me, and I've remembered it for years, heh. Really vivid dream too. Those of you who know me know that I have preeetty strange dreams, lol. ;)

Anyway, in other news, school starts tomorrow –sob- But on the plus side, I actually have a creative writing class! It won't involve fanfiction, but at least it's something, right? XD

* * *

_**Review Replies (thanks again everyone!):**_

**Colonel Bastard:** Lol, that's pretty funny that you do that. Sometimes I do things like that too, but it's long after I've read something, so I might do something like accidentally calling Light from DeathNote Artemis Fowl instead, and thinking he's trying to steal a painting rather than cleanse the world or something. XD

Lol, I love reading all of Kyon's little lines like that. I didn't even think it was something like in Haruhi Suzumiya, but now that you point it out to me, I can see the clear resemblance. Funny how stories you like can manage to sneak in like that without you even realizing, lol.

No, I don't think those two quite get the reference either, lol. Though Ed would probably treat poor Rebecca the same way even if he did get the reference, haha.

Thanks again for reading :D

**agent000:** Lol, don't go turning into Robyn on me with all your awesome rocking out, haha. Not that that would be a bad thing though… XD Nah, it's probably better to only have one Robyn rather than two, lol.

Lol, and yeah, Amestrian grammar can be so strange at times. XD Though I suppose that all languages have their quirks. One time in German we watched a video where the boy called his sister a "silly goat" in order to insult her, haha. Lol, and I bet that you already know I would love to see your translation of "Colors of the Wind" once you manage to type it up. That'd be awesome, lol.

Haha, and yep, the chapters do take me a while –sigh But hey, at least I got one out before school started! ;)

**anime.storm:** Yay, _another _update, finally! Yeah, sorry, I know these chapters can sometimes take a bit, but hey, I think I'm starting to get faster. ;)

Lol, and that's not a bad guess, especially since the only times she's understood Amestrian is when she's half asleep, lol. Sometimes you can hear things differently when you're half asleep too. XD

**MyDarkSideHasAWayOfHerOwn:** Lol, yep, Ed likes to switch between the "hate me" and "love me" moods a lot, doesn't he? And I've never heard of that song, haha, but it does sound pretty cool. Anyway, thanks again for reading :D

**Zilo Sugarpill:** Lol, so now I'm brave for being able to put a period in my fanfic? –laughs- Well, at least I'm brave for something.

Ed: Bleh.

And I'm too lazy to really sit down and say "Hey, let's research periods!" But I did happen to stumble across a book a couple years back that oh-so conveniently explained it, and it ended up sticking with me for a while.

Ed: Yeah, a while book about girls and periods. That was _fun_.

Back in the day when I thought something was wrong with me and I'd never have one, lol. I can't believe now that I was actually wishing for it to happen to me, haha. And the ability to whip out mallets from nowhere? That _is_ a useful skill.

Ed: What? Where are they coming from? What the hell happened to Equivalent Exchange?

Shush. Yeah, trying to come up with another language is tough. It makes me think even more so that JRR Tolkien was a genius.

Ed: Hey, I thought I was the genius here!

There can be more than one genius in the world, silly. And yes, Risty, making gold may be illegal, but I don't think Ed always care about that, heh.

Ed: Hmph.

Lol, well, here's the update, I'm glad I didn't get hurt for putting it out sooner, lol. ;)

**Mei Fire:**Lol, well thanks a bunch. I do feel a lot better about this story than my Ed rants, since those rants are usually written on a spur of the moment, while with stories like this (_especially_ Wish Granted, heh), I try to think more and plan things out.

Thanks bunches for reading, I'm super glad you liked it so much! :D

**SpandexTree:** Lol, so _that's_ where all the superheroes get their outfits! The spandex tree! Oh, it all makes sense now…

XD Anyway… Lol, stories like that make me cringe as well. I mean, have a lot of friends who at a lot like Ed and Al, so I figure I could probably be friends with them? But turn Rebecca into the loved-romantically-by-everyone-Mary-Sue? Never. I'd rather shoot myself in the eye, especially considering that would mean that not only Ed, but also Al, Roy AND Envy would be in loooove with her. Bleh. No way.

Lol, glad you like it, here's the next chapter for you ;)

**Lulu4ever:** Well, being the author of this story, I would think that:

a) Ed would probably be too busy ranting at Mustang for him to be able to harasses Rebecca with miniskirts.

b) Rebecca would be too likely to follow the rules around someone like Riza, so there wouldn't be a reason for her to get shot.

c) Rebecca would probably be able to deal with any Elisya pictures if it meant meeting Hughes.

d) Envy… Now that I don't think I'm going to make any promises for, sorry. ;)

**MercuryCrush:** Lol, thanks a lot, I try really hard to make Rebecca not Mary-Sue-ish. There's already enough of those stories out there. I'm glad to hear you liked it! :D

**Janika:** Lol, thanks so much for all the reviews, that was really awesome to get in my mail one day! Now to respond to all of them… ;)

Lol, Two Princesses of Bamarre was my first Gail Carson Levine book too. After reading that, I a lot of her other books, like all the princess tales, Ella Enchanted, and The Wish as well. Ella Enchanted is one of my favorites, and when I saw the movie and what they had done to Ella's character (along with other things that are too numerous to mention), I nearly cried. Now I can be alright with watching the movie from time to time as long as I consider it and the book to be two completely different stories, because really, that's what they are. I've also heard a lot from my friends about Meredith Ann Pierce, but so far I haven't yet had a chance to read her books.

Lol, yep, because you never know when a koosh ball might be the key to defeating your enemies. XD I didn't figure that _too _much of it was all that convenient, considering that I carry that sort of stuff around with me a lot of the time. To get that list of stuff, I just sat down one day last summer and wrote down everything in my sack that I was carrying everywhere, lol.

Yep, you're right, they probably would be pretty busy by this world's standards, but I would think that because everyone in Amstris for the majority hates the military, not many of them would want to call in. And besides, Rebecca is the fangirl insert; of course things are going to go her way. ;) Haha, and yeah, I usually do a bit of a mix between the anime and manga. I used to know only the manga, so I wasn't able to do that, but after I saw the anime, there were some things I like much better and some things that never sat quite right with me. And even if Rebecca _does_ know everything, she definitely not going to go blabbing it around, she's not _that_ stupid, lol. XD

Yeah, I would think that if you landed in another world the idea of not being able to be with your family would be a lot bigger of a deal than a lot of fics seem to make it. I myself love my family very much, and have problems sometimes even spending a week away from them, so thinking of what it would be like without them and no clue when you might get them back was a very hard thought for me, so I'm glad to hear it came across decently.

Lol, yep, a lot of people seem to have problems with deciding on Envy's gender. I myself read the manga first, so when I started watching the anime, I was already figuring he was a guy, I just didn't really like is voice at all, lol.

Haha, I'm glad to hear that I'm doing that well, since that's turning out to be a kinda big thing in the story. It just seems impossible that she would just randomly run into every single main character, and so many stories just have that happen _coincidentally_. Argh. Yeah, riiight.

Lol, well, maybe Izumi just isn't creative with the chores she hands out. And yep, pretty much every FMA fangirl I know has written a letter to Ed as well. It's just so hard to resist, I guess, haha.

Yep yep, a wicked sense of humor alright. Though it seems more wicked to me to follow Mason just to steal his boat and abandon him on the island. XD And of course her tests aren't what they seem at first glance, lol. Though I suppose that the only one who could figure out exactly everything they mean would be Izumi herself, lol.

Yeah, those books are pretty complicated, but I would think that Izumi would understand them. She has seen the Gate, after all, so she's pretty well versed in Alchemy, haha. You'd just have to learn how to read them properly, I suppose. Like how you have to learn how to read textbooks properly since they don't use ordinary language, only it would be much harder, I'd think.

Lol, I love cats too. :D Unfortunately I can't own one due to allergies, but a lot of my friends have cats, so I can live vicariously through them, haha. And of course I have my wooden kitty.

Yeah, I would guess that a shirt like hers would be a bit strange, since the closest I've seen to printing on a shirt is Ed's red coat, haha. I've noticed that as well, but sometimes when there's o much being put into a chapter, it can be a tad hard to fit in little details like that everywhere. I suppose it's a good thing she left her shirt at the Curtis house then. XD

Lol, nope, her boyfriend is really true, she just doesn't find something like that very important since she's gone without a boyfriend for a pretty long time. And congrats, you're the forst one to get the A, B, C title, soo… Um… Cyber cookie! –tosses cyber cookie-

Haha, punching Ed for snickering at something like that does sound like a pretty good idea, but I'd be worried of hurting my hand by doing that, lol.

Yep, Ed's one smart cookie alright. First he figured out she was on her period, and then that she was a foreigner, haha. I would bet that Izumi, Winry and everyone else had an inkling of the idea as well, since they treated her like a stray who needed help, they just didn't come out about it as bluntly as Ed.

Lol, that sounds like a pretty accurate idea of why Ed would hate her being tall so much, haha. At least with Al he's able to think that Al wouldn't be that tall if he wasn't bound to the armor, but with Rebecca he's got no excuse.

Well, I can never seem to have a fanfic without some Envy-ness in it, so he'll be sure to come back and bother them again, but for the moment, there doesn't seem to be too much trouble. Well, except for Al's disappearance…

Lol, and thanks for the dream comment. You can probably tell that influenced this chapter a bit. I realized that you were completely right on that point, and it was about time I stuck in a dream or two.

So thanks again for all the reviews, it really helped a lot to know so much of what you thought as you read! :D


	9. Chapter 9

_**Chapter Nine – Concerning the Philosopher's Stone**_

"So where do you think Al might be?" I asked as I hurried to keep up with Ed's brisk pace.

"I don't know, that's why we're out here looking for him at one o'clock in the morning," Ed grumbled. "The innkeeper said that Al finished with the dishes and went out to look for us, but we never saw him, and he never came back, so logically he'd still be out somewhere."

"So why are you bringing me along?" I frowned, remembering how Ed had clearly emphasized that we weren't friends earlier.

"Because, you're my detainee. I can't go leaving you alone somewhere, or you might go running away," Ed shrugged. He then frowned and added in a threatening tone, "But so help me, if you purposefully keep me from finding Al when he's in trouble, then believe me, hell will sound like a paradise compared to staying with me."

I gulped and nodded nervously, knowing that Ed wasn't joking. When it came to Al, nothing was going to keep him away, and if they tried, they were going to be road kill. I was too nervous to say anything after Ed had said such a serious threat, and so silence passed over the two of us as Ed set a brisk pace down the abandoned street.

"Look, Rebecca, I—" Ed sighed and glanced at me after a minute. "You must think I'm a real asshole, huh? I've treated you like… Eh, like you just crawled out of a dung pile or something."

"Not all the time," I said with a laugh. "When we went to the festival you actually talked to me civilly. And you helped me disguise myself. Those were both nice."

"Yeah, maybe, but then I ignored you the rest of the night," Ed countered. I frowned, wondering why something like this was bugging him all of a sudden. "I—Can we just agree to get along for now? I don't feel like being tense with you when I'm worried about Al. I can go back to being an asshole when we get to Central, but… Tonight we'll be friends, alright?"

I felt like my jaw would crack from the grin that had suddenly split across my face. It felt like a no-brainer on whether or not I should agree to that. "Alright!" Ed glanced over at me with one raised eyebrow, but then shook his head, and—much to my surprise—laughed.

"So help me out then," he said with a small smile. "Friends make conversation together, right? Would you help me take my mind off worrying about Al for a bit? I don't want to end up throwing up just because my stomach decided to tie itself in knots."

"Okay," I said, still grinning and trying my best to keep up with Ed's pace. "What do you want to talk about?"

"I don't care," Ed shrugged. "For now we're friends. I swear that anything you tell me tonight I won't use against you later."

"Well," I licked my lips nervously and looked over at Ed, who was, for once, looking straight back at me instead of at the sky. "I… Um… I have two younger brothers myself," I said nervously, hoping we could gain some common ground.

"They're a pain sometimes, aren't they?" Ed laughed, and I nodded eagerly in agreement.

"I used to share my room with Michael," I said, my memory flicking back to a story my parents had told repeatedly. "And one time he got bored while I was asleep. And he loved coloring and the color blue, so he took a blue marker and colored any part of me he could reach. Which ended up being half my face, an arm and a leg."

"Oh crap," Ed said, snorting amusedly.

"Yeah, when I woke up I think my mom flipped out more than me. She tried to wash it off, but apparently blue marker stays on skin for a while. So I ended up going to church half blue," I explained, and was rewarded by Ed laughing at the idea.

I hadn't heard him laugh at actual jokes very much at all. Maybe laugh in the face of danger, but not in a moment of peace quite as much. There was something about it that made tingles run down my spine as well as make me feel warm and fuzzy inside.

"So you're one of those people who believe in a higher power and all that… stuff," Ed said seriously once he had calmed down. "What church exactly do you go to?"

"Well, um… Presbyterian church," I said, suddenly feeling a bit more fidgety.

"Huh. Haven't heard of that one yet," Ed said, licking his lips and seeming to consider the idea. "But there's a lot of churches out there nowadays anyway. Who does your worship?"

"Uh… God… and Jesus," I said, wondering how I was supposed to talk about religion with Edward Elric, of all people.

"Relax, Ray," Ed said with a dazzling smile that could probably melt granite. "We're friends for tonight, you don't need to be so tense. It just threw me off. Most of the people I've met who go to church and stuff like that talk to me about that sort of thing in the first few minutes after meeting me. And then, when they find out I don't worship who _they_ think is in control of the universe, then they have to bombard me with all sorts of information and try and convert me as quickly as they can manage. It just gets annoying after a while, you know?"

"Yeah, I know," I sighed. "I'm too shy to talk to people and tell them that my God's the _right_ god, and they're going to hell if they don't think so. And sometimes I wish people would try to learn from other viewpoints before trying to change them."

"Yeah," Ed sighed. "That does get annoying. Sometimes it feels like they're just too stupid to understand anything other than what their own mind can think of as '_right'_."

"Hey, uh, Ed?"

"Yeah?"

"Do you think that maybe, if we're friends, you could stop dragging me along by my wrist?"

"Huh?" Ed stopped and glanced down to find that he still had his hand wrapped tightly around my wrist. "Promise you won't run away?" he said with a flicker of worry to his eyes, and I nodded. He then slowly let go, and I carefully rubbed at my sore wrist while continuing to walk by Ed's side. He grinned at me, while I shivered and used my two free hands to rub at my bare arms. When Ed had woken me up so abruptly, I hadn't had much time to get dressed, so I had just put on the first outfit I pulled out of my bags. Which had happened to be a short sleeve shirt and a pair of pants.

"Are you cold?" Ed asked, glancing over at me.

"I should have taken the time to find my coat," I said with a nod as I tried to rub my hands up and down my arms as quickly as I could.

"Well, er… D'you want my jacket?"

"No, it's alright, there's no sense in both of use being cold," I said, smiling at Ed.

"I won't be cold," he persisted, slipping his arms out of the familiar red. "I've got on long sleeves under this, see?"

"No, really, I—"

"Dammit, Ray, would you just take the jacket?" Ed snapped at me, while holding out the red coat I had seen so often in so many different pictures. I could feel my fingers tremble as I took the coat from him and slipped by own arms into it. I felt like I had to be breaking some sort of taboo.

But something about the coat was also comforting as soon as I put it on. The sleeves were just about the right length, but it was baggier on me than it was on Ed, especially in the shoulders. A scent drifted to my nostrils, and I realized that on top of everything else, the coat had to also have that particular Ed scent hanging around it as well.

"Thank you," I said, feeling about ready to melt into a puddle.

"That's… that's what friends do, right?" Ed shrugged, jamming his hands into his pockets.

"Well, usually I've thought it to be more of a thing a guy does for a girl he likes in a more… romantic way," I said with a nervous laugh. Ed blushed and snapped his head to look at me.

"Well, I—uh… It… eh… I was just doing it as a friend thing, alright?" he said quickly, seeming flustered. I grinned and nodded at him, happy that Ed was even on a 'just friends' basis with me. Anything was better than him seeming to hate me.

"Hey, Ed?"

"Yeah?"

"Why… why are you so scared of being in a relationship, anyway?" I said, feeing bolder than usual from the temporary friendship Ed had agreed to.

"What?!"

"Well, I mean, if anyone ever asks you if you and Winry are in a relationship, you always end up freaking out, and if you think something might imply that you like a girl, you flip out, and just… why does that scare you so much?"

"It doesn't scare me!" Ed shook his hands quickly, and I looked at him curiously. He stopped after a minute, then stopped and hung his head.

"Alright, fine, but we're friends tonight, so don't go using this against me later," he sighed. "Maybe… maybe you're right, I think it probably does scare me a bit. I just… I'm a teenage boy, of course I'm curious about… some things, and of course I'd like to have a girlfriend, it's just… If I ever admit to liking a girl, it'd end up being used against me in some way by someone who wants me to do what _they_ want. Any girl I liked would end up being in danger all the time, and… I just couldn't handle that. So it's just better if I seem to be a sexually oppressed boy who doesn't ever have any crushes on anyone, alright?"

"Alright," I said softly. I had figured that it'd probably be something like that with Ed, but the way he had said it had stunned me into silence.

"I've never even kissed a girl," Ed laughed bitterly. "Though there sure have been a lot that I've considered what it'd be like if I did kiss them. I just want to try it once with someone, just to know what it's like, that's all. You know?"

"Yeah," I said slowly. The truth was, I had felt almost the exact same way for years until I had finally managed to get my first kiss. Then I had just ended up wondering why people made such a big deal out of it. "So… Friend to friend… who exactly have you wondered about?" I asked with a grin, and I could see Ed blush in the darkness.

"No one important…" he mumbled. "I've just, you know, _considered_ it… I mean, I've thought about Winry, once there was this girl named Rosé… Shopkeepers, this girl Sheeska, I once wondered about her… Just people I meet along my travels and such…" Ed then cleared his throat loudly, coughed and added with a blush, "You."

"What?" I said in surprise, looking over at Ed. He winced under my gaze and his cheeks reddened even more.

"Well, when I first met you, I mean," he coughed and stumbled over his words. "You're… you're not a bad looking girl or anything, I just, I uh, I kinda wondered what it'd be like if… It's just normal guy stuff, you know. I wonder what it'd be like to kiss lots of girls when I first meet them, I didn't mean to offend you or anything, I just… crap."

"You think I'm attractive?" I said slowly, feeling as if the world had suddenly crashed around me. Surely Edward _Elric_ hadn't just said that. It had to be some sort of dream or something. Ed couldn't find me, plain simple_ me_, attractive, he couldn't.

"Well, I uh," Ed winced and shifted his weight from one foot to the other. "Er… Yeah, you… You're pretty. I just, uh… Are you alright, Ray?"

"I'm… I'm fine," I said, grinning slowly. "But I just bet that any minute now you're going to kiss me or something, and then I'll wake up in my own bed and realize all of this was a dream. Because there's no way I can be in your world and have you tell me I'm pretty at the same time. No way in real life, at least. That's too… perfect. It's all a dream, I know it."

"Oh," Ed sighed and glanced back down at the road. "Well, if it's worth anything, I sure as hell feel real to myself, and I still think you're… pretty, whether you think I'm real or not."

I took in a slow breath and glanced over at Ed again. He was hanging his head so that his bangs fell in front of his face and looked as if he had been absolutely broken.

"Hey, Ed," I said softly, and then reached over and poked him in the ribs. He squirmed away from my touch and crossed his arms across his chest. "I think you're pretty too," I giggled, continuing to poke at him. Ed squirmed again, looking as if he were trying hard to hide a smile.

"You know," I continued, stopping my poking before he bit my hand off. "A year ago a friend of mine showed me a picture of you. And you know what I said?"

"What?"

"Well, first I grabbed the picture from her, and then I said 'Who is that hot kid? Tell me everything you know about him!' I had a pretty big crush on you for a while, actually," I said hesitantly. I almost didn't want to tell him _that_ much, but I figured it would make him feel a bit better. And besides, I was telling him that I'd _had _a crush on him for a while, not that I still did.

Though I hadn't really considered it to be that big of a deal until I realized that he was actually a real, breathing person. And even as a real breathing person, it hadn't been that big of a deal until I'd actually met him. Now I felt like I was betraying my boyfriend every time I looked at Ed, even though I had decided to break up with him when—or if—I ever got back to my own world.

"You… had a crush on me?" Ed looked up slowly, and I suddenly felt locked in place by that pair of golden eyes. Just his eyes seemed so desperate for approval. It was a side of Ed I could remember seeing back when he had been 2-D, but that I had never really seen from something I had said.

"Well… Yeah. Back in my… country, there's a huge amount of girls who all admire you and wish they could meet you. There's probably even some who would stab me on the spot if it meant they could be in my place."

"So… You had a crush on me… Then, what, you met me and said to yourself, 'Why the hell did I like this guy? He's a complete asshole'?" Ed reached backwards and tugged at his braid while managing to avoid eye contact with me at the same time. I felt like his words had just punched me in the gut.

"No, Ed, I—"

"You there! You're some of the newcomers from the rerouted train, aren't you?"

The loud voice pierced through the darkness, and Ed and I both looked up in surprise. I frowned as I recognized the Xingese girl I had noticed earlier at the festival. She had seemed depressed back then, but now she just seemed angry.

"Who the hell goes walking around town at one in the morning?" Ed muttered under his breath.

"Well, us," I whispered back with a grin. Ed sighed and rolled his eyes.

"Point taken," he said, and then raised his voice to a shout so the Xingese girl would be able to hear him. "Well, so what if we are? Who wants to know?"

"We can do this the hard way or the easy way, you tiny blond speck!" the girl shouted back. I could see Ed clench his fists at the comment, and he easily flowed into a fighting stance.

"I think you just chose the hard way!" he yelled back, and then glanced over at me.

"Rebecca, go sit against that wall, alright?" he said softly, though I could tell he was still tense and itching to fight. "This'll be over in a few minutes. If you go running off while I'm distracted, then I'll track you down like a dog, understand? Just don't go getting hurt, and _don't_ go disappearing on me." I nodded and hurried over to the wall, where I then sat down excitedly. It was my first chance to watch a _real_ Ed battle, that just _had _to be better than a cartoon.

As with most of the battles I had already seen from FMA, Ed started by grinning and clapping his hands together. Bright blue light flooded the darkened street, and next thing I knew, Ed was running towards the girl with the automail blade that he used so many times.

I had seen beautiful paintings, heard beautiful symphonies, and watched beautiful dances back in my own world plenty of times, but just watching Ed, I felt as if they had all been merely trying to capture Ed as I could see him at that moment, but none of them ever succeeded. It was almost as if he were dancing, but it was also so very different from that. Every move he made, every slash or kick had some sort of purpose. It was both the beauty of a panther on the prowl, and the mind-boggling logic of a well-played chess game.

But then the girl started striking back, and I could see the smoothness to Ed's moves start to become more and more jerky. He started trying to attack her less and less, and more simply trying to not get hit. The girl was good, and she was winning.

She finally managed to hit Ed, despite all his dodging. I could see the darkness of blood seep through the sleeve of his left arm, and I found myself wondering where from, or even _when_ she had pulled the knife out. Ed grunted in pain and twisted away from her to try and catch his breath.

In that movement, his head finally turned so he was able to see me. I could feel my eyes lock with his while I bit my lip in worry. He seemed surprised by something, maybe the fact that the girl was better than he had anticipated.

"What the hell is wrong with you?! What are you still doing here?" he yelled at me, while the girl approached him with her knife.

"You told me to stay!" I yelled back just as Ed grunted and dodged away from the girl. He looked back at me and frantically waved his arms.

"Get out of here, Ray! Forget what I said! Run!"

I blinked in surprise at his words. I hadn't thought that Ed would be the type to resort to running when things looked bad, but I still trusted him. I got up and started running as fast as I could down the street without looking back.

After a minute or so, I felt like my chest was on fire, and I had no idea where I was anymore. I slowed to a stop and glanced around before collapsing to my knees.

I knew it was because of my asthma that I couldn't run any farther. If I only knew which way the inn was, I could get both help for Ed and my inhaler from my bag. I had been in such a rush to try and find Al that I hadn't thought to bring anything along with me.

The world spun around me as I took in huge, gasping breaths. No matter what I did, I just couldn't seem to get enough air to my lungs. I closed my eyes and leaned forward, my body shaking with coughs that burned at my throat. Why was I coughing? I couldn't cough, that wasted too much air.

I heard a pair of footsteps coming towards me through my fog, and I nearly laughed in relief, but laughing wasted too much air as well.

"Ed?" I breathed. It was the only word I could manage. I wanted to ask how he had managed to get away from the girl, but I figured that could wait for later.

_What the hell is wrong with you?! Get out of here! Run!_

I frowned. If Ed was coming, then why would he want me to keep running? Wasn't he going to help me? Nevertheless, I shakily pushed myself to my feet and tried my best to keep running, though I had no idea what way I was going, and my legs seemed to be made of Silly Putty. After going only a few steps, I collapsed back to the ground in a shaking, coughing heap.

"Stupid, weak little girl," a voice above me said, and then the world spun into darkness.

* * *

"Ray? Come on Ray, wake up. Damn it. This is all my fault. Please wake up, Ray. I swear, if you go dying on my just because I was an idiot—"

I slowly opened my eyes and then coughed, wondering why breathing seemed like such a hard task.

"Ray?" the worried voice above me said, and I slowly focused until I realized it was Ed speaking to me. He sighed and ran a hand through his bangs. "You're alive. Good. I thought for a minute that maybe you had—How are you doing now?"

"Sore," I said slowly as I pushed myself into a sitting position. I licked my lips, realizing they were bloody, probably from me biting them in worry while I had been watching Ed.

"Is… is that squeaking coming from you?" Ed said while glancing quickly around the room. I took in a deep breath and could hear a high-pitched squeak, then I held my breath and the squeaking stopped. I sighed, and another squeak went with it.

"Yeah, that would be me," I said slowly. "Sometimes that happens when my asthma gets so bad."

"Asthma?" Ed blinked.

"Yeah, it's when my airways—"

"I know what it is," he snapped back before I could finish. "I just didn't know that you _had _it. Damn it. Why didn't you tell me something important like that earlier?!"

"I—I'm sorry," I quivered, wondering why Ed was suddenly so mad at me. "I didn't mean to—I'm sorry, Ed, I'm so sorry!"

"Wait, Ray," Ed sighed and hung his head. "I'm the one who should be apologizing here. You're the one who passed out and is currently in worse shape between the two of us right now. I'm just… tense, that's all. I thought you had actually gotten away and would find some help, but then I find out that not only did you get captured, but I didn't even know if you were alive or dead when those bastards dumped you in here."

I sat there silently, while I quivered and squeaked, afraid to do anything else. I didn't even want to squeak, but I could only stop that by not breathing.

"Here, let me show you something," Ed sighed and then grabbed my arms. "When you have trouble breathing, put your hands on your head, like this," he said and moved my hands so they rested on the back of my head. "It helps open up your airways so you can breathe easier."

"Thanks," I grinned as the squeaking stopped. It was strange, but the simple movement did help me breathe a lot easier.

"Aw, how cute," a smooth voice cooed, and for the first time I actually looked around the room and took in my surroundings. We were in a large room with paneled walls and a thick carpet. On the other side of the room there a set of tall bookcases all filled to the brim with books that had gold trim around the edges. In the center of the room was a huge table with chairs around it that looked like it was made out of mahogany or some other fancy wood.

And much to my surprise, a large group of other people were crowded into the room with us. I thought that maybe I could recognize a few of them from the train ride, but I wasn't sure.

And then there was Envy, sitting as far away from the other people as he could and smirking in the direction of me and Ed.

"I thought I told you to shut the hell up and leave us alone, Envy," Ed growled, shifting so that he was on his feet, but still crouching low enough to be at the same level I was.

"Aw, so mean," Envy sighed dramatically.

"Wait a minute…" I said slowly, frowning as I realized that I could understand what he was saying. "He's… he's speaking in ILT. Why's he doing that? Wouldn't he just speak in Amestrian?" I looked to Ed for clarification, and he sighed and looked back at me.

"No, he's a homunculus," Ed said simply. "I've never heard a homunculi speak in Amestrain before in my life. The only language they seem able to speak is ILT."

"Ooh," I said slowly, a few pieces seeming to click into place in my brain. "So… that's why you were so suspicious of me at first, isn't it? You thought that because I seemed to know something about you and Al, along with the fact that I only spoke ILT… You thought that I was a…"

"Homunculus," Ed finished for me, continuing to watch Envy. Envy seemed amused just watching me manage to figure things out. "But homunculi don't collapse in the street from asthma attacks, and if you were some sort of new homunculus, Envy would have made sure he got to you before I did when we were put in the same room."

"Though if you're unsure, you could always search every inch of her skin for an oroborous tattoo," Envy grinned, and Ed clenched his fists even tighter.

"I _said_, shut. The. Hell. Up," Ed growled at Envy, though the homunculi didn't seem at all threatened by the tone.

"Hey, she's your girlfriend, it's your decision," Envy said simply, managing to remind me somehow of a cat. A large, nasty, evil cat. "But I must admit pipsqueak, you sure do have some taste when it comes to women. You couldn't just have any girl, no, you had to pick the single girl out there who might actually have a chance in helping you. Well done. Woo the girl, and you get your bodies back, eh?"

"What are you talking about?" Ed said with a scowl. I barely noticed him inch backwards a tad so he was slightly closer to me.

"Oh, you don't know?" Envy laughed. "Why don't you ask your girlfriend then? If she likes you, I'm sure she'd tell you."

"Tell him what?" I licked my lips nervously and looked between Ed and Envy, wondering what they were talking about.

"Oh my, _she_ doesn't know either? What a turn of events!" Envy laughed, tilting his whole head backwards and leaning back onto his palms.

"Envy, you'd better tell me what the hell you're talking about, or so help me, I'll—"

"You remember that day we were fighting and your alchemy suddenly stopped, runt? And when your brother tried doing it, he couldn't manage it either?"

"Yeah," Ed said slowly, watching Envy suspiciously.

"Well, it turns out that all alchemy all over the country—all over the world, even—stopped that day, at that moment. I was a bit curious by that, so I decided to poke my nose around a little bit, since we had nothing to do with that, for once.

"Now my alchemy's a bit rough, so you might want to back me up on this, half-pint, but I found that the reason all the alchemy stopped that day was because a sudden influx of alchemic power disrupted everything, and everyone else had to adjust in order to make things keep flowing properly. What exactly do you people call that again?"

"Equivalent Exchange," Ed breathed, his eyes wide.

"So in order to accommodate for this one source of power that suddenly showed up, every alchemist _in the world_ wasn't able to do alchemy for about an hour, maybe an hour and a half, tops. You're good at math pipsqueak; just how much power would that add up to? I figure it's probably even more than the Philosopher's Stone everybody seems to want so badly nowadays.

"So then I figured that if there was a power source that big out there, I would be the first to get it. And after searching until I was about ready to give up, I find that at the same time all the alchemy of the world went ptooie, a little girl by the name of Rebecca Jacobson showed up in Resembool. A girl who doesn't show up in any records anywhere, and who has technology that should belong to the daughter of a mayor or someone even more important, but yet looks as if it's been used to the point where it's falling apart. And a girl who doesn't seem to understand the language of the local residents at all."

"Stop jerking me around," Ed growled at Envy, looking like he was ready to murder someone.

"Come now, runt," Envy grinned. "Admit it, you're an alchemist. Ever since you met little Rebecca, haven't you thought there was something slightly odd about her? Couldn't you just taste that power lying right beneath the surface? And then there's all these rerouted trains that have been occurring recently. Did you know that any trains that have been rerouted have always been within a certain radius of Rebecca? I've been following her for a while now, and she's got to be the power source that showed up. That girlfriend of yours is the Philosopher's Stone in a nice, compact human container. She probably even has enough power stored up in her to bring the dead back to life. The one thing that no one else can do. Good person to make friends with, eh?"

Ed frowned and glanced back at me, while my mind spun at the thought. I couldn't have that much power, could I? Where on earth would I have even gotten that much power if I did have it? I certainly hadn't been that powerful back in my world.

But it couldn't be true anyway. That wasn't possible. I was just plain, normal Rebecca. Not some human Philosopher's Stone.

_I wish I knew the Elrics. _

_I wish Roy would keep talking on the phone._

_I wish I didn't have pimples. _

_I wish I could find a trinket in the debris of the Elric home. _

_I wish I were going to a town that's important in FMA. _

_I wish I could make a transmutation circle work. _

_I wish I could draw a proper circle. _

_I wish something special would happen for my birthday. _

_I wish we weren't going to Central right away. _

_**I wish I were in Fullmetal Alchemist.**_

"I wish," I murmured, slightly in awe, and slightly in horror. Every one of those wishes had ended up coming true, sometimes only minutes after I had wished it.

"Rebecca?" Ed said, looking at me with a puzzled expression on his face. "He's not right, is he? Come on, tell me he's not right."

"I wish I had a chocolate bar," I whispered, closing my eyes and blocking out the rest of the world. I felt a slight weight in my hands, and looked down with wide eyes to see a Hershey's bar sitting there innocently. I looked up at Ed, who was staring at me as if I had grown a second head.

"Where's the Equivalent Exchange?" he breathed. "How do you… what the hell are you?"

"I'm just Rebecca," I choked, gripping the chocolate bar tightly. "I'm still—"

But my throat constricted and I stopped. How could a claim I was still the same person? How could I even claim I was human? I didn't know if I was human anymore. Some alchemist could have created me just for the power it would give them. Maybe even my memories weren't real, maybe those had been created with me so I could blend in with other people and hide my real power from them. How was I supposed to know I had ever come from a place called Earth, or even that a place called Earth existed?

"Ray? Ray, would you look at me?" I could feel a firm hand grab my chin and jerk it upwards so I was looking directly into Ed's eyes. I squirmed and tried to look away, but his grip tightened and he leaned in close to me.

"What if I'm not human?" I moaned, closing my eyes. "What if everything I thought to be true has really just been some lie? What if I'm only an object that's meant to be fought over and killed for?"

"Ray. Ray, listen to me," Ed gripped my chin even harder and leaned in so close that I could feel his breath pooling around my face. I opened my eyes again and looked at him warily.

"If there's one thing I've learned in the past few years, it's that you don't need a human body to be human," he said softly. "Even if you may not have what most people consider to be a human body, you're one of the most human girls I've ever met. And you know, I think that you probably have a human body anyway. I bet that you're just the one lucky person in a billion who gets gifted with immeasurable power."

"But I'm just… just…"

"Just Rebecca," Ed smiled. "And this is part of what makes you Rebecca. But now I… Now anything I do, any act of kindness I show towards you, you're probably going to wonder if I really mean it, or if I'm only manipulating you to try and get our bodies back. And Ray, I want you to know that while I may want that, I still mean all this just because of you, not because of the power you might have."

"You know, when I met you, I just suddenly knew that everything would be alright somehow," Ed continued in a gentle tone. "I just… I knew that no matter how bleak things seemed at times, I would always have people who would be rooting for me. And that was just from when I met you. Having you around me has made me feel more sure of myself than I ever have before."

"Isn't he sweet?" Envy purred. I jerked instinctively to look at him, but Ed held my chin firmly and kept looking straight at me.

"Don't worry about him. Just keep looking at me, alright?" Ed kept his tone even, and I sniffled but found that the warm golden pools in front of my eyes didn't seem to hold any hatred or distrust. I could tell that Ed completely believed in me, and that he really did mean everything he said.

"If I've told you once, I've told you a million times. Shut the hell up, Envy," Ed growled, while not taking his eyes off me for a second. I squirmed, not entirely comfortable with having his simply stare at me for so long, but at the same time, it was still a bit soothing.

"How's he supposed to know what it's like?" Envy continued, not seeming to hear Ed. "He's always been human, and always had proof that he is. What proof do you have? Do you really think he has any idea what it's like to feel that doubt?"

I looked to Ed, expecting him to counter, but he stayed silent, just continuing to look at me with those golden eyes. He seemed like he knew he couldn't say that he had felt that doubt, and fighting against Envy would just make anything he said look stupid.

"And he's not even the one who discovered your power," Envy continued. "If you want to learn what you're truly capable of, do you really think he'd be the one who'd be able to teach you? And look at the way he's treating you now. He's holding you down as if you're a dog he's teaching to stay."

Ed sighed, and his warm breath wrapped around my face and tickled at my skin. He then let go of my chin, though he continued looking at me.

"You're welcome to go if you want," he murmured. "I'm not your master, and I'm not going to force you to stay somewhere if you don't want to." I bit my lip and looked between Ed and Envy.

"You don't know a lot about me," I said softly, looking back to Ed.

"And you don't know a lot about me," he said in return. "It doesn't mean we can't ever learn."

"You might be surprised what I know about you," I pressed, almost wanting him to reject me, to say I wasn't worth his time and turn me away. "I… I know the truth about Al. And your arm and leg. I know just how much you loved your mother, and how much you missed her after she got sick." Ed's eyes widened as he kept staring at me.

"You… You're a pretty smart cookie, huh?" he finally said after a minute.

"That's it?" I gasped. "You got so mad at me for accidentally slipping one little sentence about Al, but I say all that and it's fine? Aren't you going to get all angry and hate me now?"

"Man, I really was good at giving off the asshole vibe," Ed sighed, closing his eyes for a second. "First of all, I acted like that when I still thought you might be a homunculi, remember? Secondly, I wouldn't _hate _you, even if I got upset. I never _hated _you. Hate is a really strong word. The only people I actually _hate _are people like Envy who really don't have a scrap of good in them. And not many people qualify for that."

"So you're alright with me knowing all of that?"

"Well, it is a bit unnerving," Ed shrugged with a half smile. "But Al pointed out that at least it means we don't have to go telling you all of that. Do you… do you know about our dad too?"

"Yes," I winced and closed my eyes while nodding. "I know practically _everything_ about you."

"And you still talked with me and treated me like a friend," Ed said with a smile. "That's why it's okay. Because you think that my past isn't that big of a deal. You're really something else, you know that, Rebecca? I don't think I've ever met another girl at all like you."

"So everything's fine then?" I asked in disbelief.

"Yeah—Well, if we get out of here and you do decide to hang around me and Al, I'll probably still give you a hard time now and then, but that's just what I do."

"I could probably get us out of here easily," I whispered, half-scared of what my newfound power seemed to be capable of.

"You could, but is that really what you want?"

"I—well…" I giggled and looked at Ed. "Truth be told, I'd kinda like to see you fight again. That last fight was amazing."

"I lost!"

"It was still pretty," I laughed.

"Alright fine, so we're going to try and get out of here just so you can see me perform another 'pretty' fight?" Ed asked with a grin. I laughed and nodded in agreement.

"First you'll have to get past me," a smooth voice said, and we looked up to see Envy standing by the doorway. "You can't let me have one little wish, can you, pipsqueak? All I want is one little wish. Maybe I'll feel better about not getting it if you're dead."

Ed clenched his fists, and I could feel my stomach drop to the floor.

* * *

_**Lesson of the Day**__**—Fun tidbits for fans**__**: **_

"_Stop jerking me around," Ed growled at Envy, looking like he was ready to murder someone. _

This phrase is actually considered to be a catch phrase of sorts for Ed. It's been translated a few different ways, even to "Don't fuck with me." I chose to use the "Stop jerking me around" version since that was in the official dub, and I also don't usually like putting word "fuck" into my fanfics when it can be avoided.

Also, someone asked me what exactly the German alchemic text meant a few chapters back. It's not like it's very important, but I was a bit curious myself, so I translated it on an online translator, since my German's not quuuite at that skill level. So roughly it means:

_Who the realization of the metals_

_and certain science_

_as it transmutes and wrongly into other one will-attains one, which must recognize first of all_

_From which and as it in their minerals to be formed. Thus_

_and on which one does not err_

_minerals_

Weird. But hey, that's alchemists for you. –snickers-

I've been dropping slight hints in nearly every chapter about Rebecca's power. I've take special care to use exactly the word "wish" when she manipulates something to go her way, though the word "wish" does pop up other times in the story. Usually it'll be an "almost wished" if that's the case, but sometimes it just means that she either didn't really, truly wish it, or it just hasn't been fulfilled yet. So, for your lazy pleasure, I've included quotes from the story that involve the word "wish," though this isn't all of them. If you want to know _all_ of them, you have to go back and find them yourself. XD

"_I desperately wished he would continue the conversation." (Referring to Roy) _

"_I half-wished I could find something among the debris that would show me a small glimpse of Ed and Al's childhood." _

"_I found myself wishing that the train were going to a town I actually knew rather than one I had picked off a map randomly."_

"_I wished I could tell him that there would always be people rooting for him, whether he realized it or not." _

"_I wished I could just somehow show him that everything would be all right."_

_I wished something would happen when I touched the circle; that somehow I would let the power flow through me like Izumi said I had to." _

"_I pressed the chalk against the floor one last time, wishing desperately that it would actually work for once." _

"_I wished silently to myself that something special would happen in the next twenty-four hours, whether anyone knew it was my birthday or not." _

"_I squeezed my eyes shut, desperately wishing the announcer would come on and tell us we wouldn't be going to Central after all."_

* * *

_**Author's Note: **_

**Wish** **Granted hit both the 100 review mark and the 100 page mark at the same time! Thank you all soo much!! :D**

Heh, I manage to post relatively quickly (for Wish Granted, at least), and I leave you all with yet another cliffie. I'm so sorry! –runs to corner and sobs-

I was planning yet again that this chapter would be THE LAST chapter in Bakenhaert, and my stupid muse proved once again that I'm not da boss. –sobs again- I'm hoping that next chapter will _finally _wrap up all the loose ends that need to be wrapped up and we can finally send the trio on their merry way.

Anyway, as for chapters… -laughs evilly- Twas a fun one, was it not? How many of you saw the chapter title and were all "TTYLBRBG2GOMGOMGOMG!!"? XD Not that many? Ah, too bad.

I've been planning to do this chapter since the very beginning of the story, actually, though I had originally planned for Rebecca to figure it out on her own, and for them to be fighting Scar, not trapped in a room with Envy. So it would have been more along the lines of…

Rebecca: AAGH! I wish Scar would find something else to chase!!

Scar: -sees kitten- Ooo! Come back here, you little rascal!

Rebecca: Um…

Ed: How did you do that?

Rebecca: Uh… I wish Scar would disappear?

Scar: -poof!-

Ed: …

Rebecca: AWESOME!

Yes, that's the AdventureAddict version of an omake thingy. Take it or leave it. But Envy is fun(ish), so he ended up getting the part instead. Hopefully Scar will manage to get his share of the fame later.

And hey, this is the first chapter that hasn't had three different section-scene thingies in it! There was just so much to say in the first two sections I had planned that there wasn't enough space for the third! XD

* * *

_**Review Replies (thanks so much everyone!):**_

**Colonel Bastard:** Lol, that is pretty silly of your grandfather to have done. We actually do have a window that looks into a hallway, it just wasn't placed in a bathroo, which would indeed be problematic.

…I used to think that window had to be a gateway to Narnia or something when I was a kid. I mean, how many windows look into hallways?

Well, Rebecca hasn't gone around touching L's foot, hm? -smacks head- No, bad AA, no Deathnote sequels!

Lol, and I was thinking "No, pee" the entire time I was writing that scene too. I KNEW I should have slipped it in somewhere, I just wasn't quite sure where to fit it.

Blond hair Ed pwns black hair Ed foeva. I didn't like that at all, it looked so… wrong. Though I know loads of people who watched that and thought it was hot.

Lol, and yeah, it was way scarier than I made it in the chapter too. I always end up toning down dreams and usually cutting things out in order to fit it in the space I want. If I REALLY wanted to make that dream as scary as it was, it'd have to be a whole book.

And then the readers would kill me when they reached the end and went "UGH! It was a dream the entire time??"

And well, a letter AS Ed I think counts too. Letters relating to FMA would be the better wording for that, I think. And maybe not FANGIRLS, but girls who are merely fans of FMA usually seem to end up writing letters related to FMA in some way.

Glad you love the long chapters, I like writing em! Though they have a habit of ending in cliffies. Curse you, muse! –shakes fist-

**Lulu4ever:** Lol, well, good, I was hoping you'd be suspicious of the dream right at the beginning. It sure was obvious to mew, but then again, I AM the writer. XD

Aw, there there, you're with a fellow Al lover, he'll be alright. Sorry for the lack of him in this chapter, but he'll still be alright. And Ed. And Rebecca. –sweatdrops- They do love danger, don't they?

**Mei Fire:** -snickers- At least I'm not the only one who seems happy when Ed and Rebecca are actually getting along and being sweet. But then I have to write chapters where they mostly aren't like that and I end up getting all depressed from it. :(

And hey, I DID update again, whadda know? –throws confetti- Hope you enjoyed it, Merry Un-Birthday!

**agent000:** Whoo! Yeah, it's been flowing a bit better than usual recently, yay! But you know how muses are. –laughs and shakes head- It seems like they're never going to get out of Bakenhaert, but oh well, there's always next chapter.

And yes, I'm aware I switched out the C for a K. I figured that since he'd most likely only be making this one appearance, it'd be easier just to use a K so I wouldn't have readers going "Marc? Why'd she spell his name so funny?" Focus more on the character himself and less on the spelling.

Lol, and so far I've had friends telling me they've blocked other things, but Gmail is still going strong, so maybe they won't block it for a while yet… -laughs evilly-

In the meantime, I suppose some pesky muses will make me keep working on the next chapter of this. At least it keeps the readers happy.

**UnbornHope:** Yeah, Al's been taking a break for a few chapters. It makes me sad as well. Hopefully there will be a point later in the story where Al will get to have all the attention and Ed will be the one to sit alone in the corner so they can balance things out.

And yep, that's me, the no fun bringer. Though it's oodles of fun for me to see readers get excited and then turn to either ranting at me or pouting in my general direstion. :) I'm slightly evil, aren't I?

Here's the next chapter, enjoy. XD

**anime.storm:** Yep, weird dreams. My brothers like to tease me for them. They're always either really hilariously stupid, or really scary strange, lol.

Haha, and thanks, that's really great to hear, since I try so hard to do both of those things.

Lol, here's the update, don't go dying from excitement, okie dokie?

**MyDarkSideHasAWayOfHerOwn:** Lol, sometimes I envy people who forget most of their dreams. I can remember a weird dream for years on end sometimes. Which is sometimes fun and leads to awesome fanfics alter, and sometimes simply drives me nuts.

Aw, you poor little Freshman. –gazes fondly into distance- I remember my Freshman days like they were yesterday… Of course, now I'm one of the Seniors, so I get to be king of the school! –laughs and shakes fist-

**SpandexTree:** Lol, well, the polar bear wasn't pink, just the inside of his mouth. Like, he has white fur like any normal polar bear, and then he has pink gums inside his mouth. XD


	10. Chapter 10

_**Chapter Ten – Concerning Fighting, Kimei, and Sleepiness**_

"Go screw a palm tree, Envy," Ed growled, and I could see his muscles tighten.

"So rude, pipsqueak," Envy said with an evil chuckle. "Didn't that mother of yours teach you any manners?" Ed snarled and jumped to his feet in an instant, glaring at Envy with clenched fists. My breathing quickened, and I tried to think of what I could do to stop them. Ed fighting to the death with a homunculus didn't seem to usually end very prettily for either of them.

I figured I could try granting Envy the wish he seemed so upset about, but I didn't know what it was, so I'd have to ask him. And once I asked him, he'd expect me to do it, but maybe I wouldn't be able to. And then he'd probably get angry and lash out, most likely at Ed or me. And what if his wish involved killing people? I couldn't help him with something horrible like that.

"Just don't hurt Rebecca, she's innocent," Ed said, snapping me out of my thoughts as he glanced quickly at me.

"Oo, that almost makes me want to hurt her just because you told me not to," Envy smirked. "Good thing she's such a wonderful prize that I wouldn't dream of destroying her. Then again… she doesn't need her arms to grant wishes, does she?"

"Bastard!" Ed shouted and lunged towards Envy with his bare hands. My mind raced, knowing I only had seconds until they were fighting.

"IwishEnvywereboundinducttape!" I yelled in one panicked breath. Ed stopped running just as Envy fell to the floor, bound and gagged in silver duct tape. I breathed a sigh of relief. Duct tape had saved the day yet again.

"What the hell…?" Ed said slowly, looking at Envy curiously. Envy scowled and struggled in his bonds, but was unable to manage more than an annoyed grumble. Ed half-laughed and reached out his foot to lightly roll Envy onto his back.

"Can we get out of here now?" I sighed, relieved that Envy was no longer a threat and all the damage Ed had sustained was still from his fight with the Xingese girl. I stood up, and realized from an odd weight hanging around my shoulders that I was still wearing Ed's red coat from before. I had completely disregarded it during all the commotion.

"Alright, let's get out of here," Ed sighed in agreement before grabbing my wrist and running out of the room, pulling me along with him yet again.

"So, how much do you think I can do with all of this?" I asked as we ran. Ed glanced over at me with an expression like he was thinking the question over.

"Well, Envy mentioned that you might have enough power to even bring dead back to life, so I'd bet you could do just about anything," he said slowly. "Hell, I bet you could wish for wings if you wanted to." He paused for a minute and a glint shone in his eyes as he grinned at me. "I bet that you could even… oh, I don't know, make someone taller if you wanted to."

"Nice try, Ed," I laughed. He huffed and made a face at me, obviously displeased with my answer.

"It's not like you'd have to make me a freaking giant or anything," he grumbled. I opened my mouth to retort, but was cut off by Ed rounding a corner and coming face-to-face with three bulky men.

"Ray, go sit—" he started, but I shook my head.

"Not this time," I said determinedly. "If I _can_ help you, I _will_. I've always wished I had fighting skills as good as you anyway." Ed sighed and rolled his eyes, while I grinned at him and found myself easily taking up the same fighting stance as him.

"Just don't push yourself too much," Ed grumbled. "I don't want you passing out on me again. Even if you can fight like me, you can still die from asthma." I bit my lip, considering if I could change _that_ as well, but didn't have enough time to think about it seriously before Ed clapped his hands and formed his automail into his trademark blade once again.

Before I knew what was happening, I was running forward with Ed. One of the men grinned a toothless smile at me that showed he was obviously more brawn than brain. I winced, but also knew it would make taking him down a lot easier.

He punched towards my face, and I instinctively ducked and swept his feet out from underneath him. The bulky man fell to the ground, and I grinned in surprise at my achievement. It was a great leap in skill compared to how I used to only know three moves my brothers had taught me from their karate class.

It surprised me how easily the information necessary to fight came to me. It almost felt as if I were listening to a lecture in class and doodling at the same time. I was completely aware of what I was doing, but it was not a conscious action. I was merely _doing _it, not making the choice to do it. It was as if I had been consumed by instinct, and all I could do was stand by until the very organized, very controlled seizure would pass.

I could still remember how beautiful I had thought Ed's fighting to be, and I wondered briefly if I looked the same as the man pulled himself to his feet and began fighting with me.

I managed to take the man down, being careful not to exert myself so I wouldn't trigger another asthma attack. But even with only one man to fight compared to Ed fighting the other two, I still found him staring at me and leaning casually against a wall. The two men he had fought were lying on the ground and moaning in pain.

"Wow," Ed said softly as I took a moment to catch my breath. "You know, there was some part of me that always wondered what I would look like if I were fighting with boobs and hips. Be careful wearing that jacket, or people will start thinking I went and turned Al into a girl and now have a sister instead."

"No way," I laughed, looking up at him and breathing slowly. "Our faces don't look that alike."

"No, you have a point there," Ed mused, stroking his chin. "What's more likely is that I'll have to deal with Mustang telling me 'it's about fucking time you showed a normal balance with all those super little hormones stored inside your body, and if you hadn't get a girlfriend sooner, I would have started worrying that you're either a sick person unworthy of the human race that will never want sex, or that you would have turned out to be gay, blahdy blah blah, but don't go too far because you're still teenagers and all and so on and so on, and you shouldn't look up to me so much that you become a complete womanizer at your age, though it would probably do you some good anyway. Har har har.'"

Ed sighed heavily and leaned against the wall, while I just stared at him in silence. I then bit my lip and before I knew it, I was cracking up, bending over and clutching at my sides, though Ed sure didn't find it that funny.

"Yeah, yeah, laugh it up," he muttered. "But when we get to Central, I call dibs on the 'I told you so' moment. Now, we'd better get going before we start setting off too many alarms." I nodded, still laughing in amusement. Ed's actual impersonation of Mustang was way funnier than the one I had seen in the anime.

I took a deep breath and sobered up, then glanced back at Ed, who was waiting somewhat patiently. What surprised me most was that he had an amused grin on his face as well. He pushed himself out of his leaning position and walked over to me, and I found myself wishing that just once he would actually take my hand instead of dragging me along by the wrist.

…Wait, I didn't mean that—!

I caught myself in the same instant Ed's left hand slipped into mine. We both jumped away from each other simultaneously and looked at each other with wide eyes.

"Sorry!" We said it in unison. I would have laughed if I didn't feel like I had turned to stone.

"I'm sorry, Ray! I don't know what came over me, I just—"

"No, it's my fault," I interrupted quickly. "I really didn't mean to, Ed, I'm so sorry. I accidentally wished you would hold my hand before I had a chance to change it."

"You… wished it?" Ed looked at me with wide eyes, then looked down at his hand, slowly flexing it again. When he looked back up at me, he looked different. Almost as if he was relieved about something. "We're getting distracted again. We really should get going before people start coming after us."

I sighed and nodded in agreement. Ed started down the hall, and I ran to catch up with him, matching my pace with his so we were side by side. Ed glanced at me, grinned, and then slipped his left hand into mine a second time. My jaw dropped open in surprise.

"Ed, I thought that—You—It's okay if you don't hold my hand, I was just—" My tongue seemed to trip over the words. The fact that Edward Elric, of all things, was holding my hand didn't seem to be helping matters either.

"Ray?"

"Yeah?"

"Shut up," Ed said, still looking straight ahead. I bit my lip and frowned, worried what he was so upset about from the angry tone to his voice. Then he turned to me and grinned, and I could feel myself relax slightly. I thought I could feel him squeeze my hand reassuringly as he looked away again, but then I frowned and figured I must have imagined it.

We came to another corner and turned it quickly, but then I heard a loud clang. I could feel Ed grunt and fall to the ground beside me, dragging me down with him. I twisted in my fall and fell headfirst against Ed, grateful for the softer landing.

"Brother?! Are you alright?"

I grinned at the familiar voice. At least we knew where Al was.

"Jeez, Al, you nearly killed me," Ed protested weakly. My eyes widened as I realized I could feel the reverberations of his voice and that my cheek was actually resting on his chest. I could feel a hand carefully wrap around my shoulders, and then Ed slowly pushed himself into a sitting position. I felt grateful for the fact that at least I wasn't straddling him.

"You alright, Ray?" he asked, pulling me away from him and letting go of my shoulders.

Yeah, but… aren't you going to jump to your feet, start blushing and apologizing and that sort of thing?" I asked, remembering how these fanfics usually ended up going.

"Why would I do that??" Ed asked, frowning at me. I licked my lips and shrugged.

"I—Well—I don't know, I just… How'd you get here anyway, Al?" I asked, slipping on the words. Al chuckled from high above me.

"Well, first I was causing too much trouble when they put me in a room with a bunch of other people, so I was placed in a separate room," Al explained, and Ed snorted. "Then I escaped out of there too. I thought you'd probably show p sooner or later, Brother. Oh! And did you know that Envy's here as well?"

"Yeah, we already met up with him," Ed shrugged simply, standing up and brushing himself off. "I don't think he's going to be giving us any trouble." Ed then glanced down at me, grinned, and held out his hand. I took it gratefully and let him pull me to my feet.

"So, now what?" I asked, glancing between the two brothers.

"Now's the most fun part." Ed grinned. I looked at him curiously. "Now's the part where we run like hell and act like we know what we're doing!" I laughed and nodded in agreement. Ed held out his hand as if we were nobles going out for an afternoon stroll. I laughed again and slipped my hand into his, surprised a how easy it was. His gloved fingers squeezed mine tightly, and we were off again, this time with Al following behind us.

"So what did I miss that made you two start seeing sense?" Al asked over the loud clanking that came from him running.

"Huh?" Ed frowned and looked back at Al.

"Well, I figured that since you two are… never mind," Al laughed.

"We're going to have to fill you in on a lot once this whole mess is over," Ed said. I winced, not looking forward to rehashing the entire ordeal a second time. "Plus I have some questions to ask Ray, but now's not really the best time to—"

He stopped abruptly as we rounded another corner and into another group of men. But instead of three men, like the last time, there were seven of them, six of them the huge and brawny type we had run into before, and one who was smaller, had combed hair and was wearing a neatly pressed military uniform.

Ed sighed dramatically, then let go and lunged forward, his right arm still formed into a blade from the last fight. I grinned at Al, and then the two of us followed behind the ever-eager blond.

"Don't hurt them any more than necessary!" the man in the uniform barked out orders while making sure he stayed far enough away from the fight himself. "Just leave enough bruises on them so that they don't consider leaving again!"

"Good luck accomplishing that with us," I chuckled before punching one of the brawns in the face. He growled and tried to sweep my feet, but I easily leaped above his foot and kicked him in the gut with one swift movement. The man fell to the ground with a moan.

I glanced up at the brothers while I fought, and nearly got hit in the face from the distraction. Ed and Al were fighting three brawns together. It seemed like they could communicate without talking to each other, or even sometimes looking at one another. Whenever one of them made a move, the other would play right off it to gain the upper hand on one of their opponents. I had thought that Ed fighting was beautiful enough, but it looked even more amazing when he and Al were working together.

And of course, there was no denying the way Ed's muscles rippled when he moved, almost as if he were water instead of human. But even water was too common, too ordinary to compare to him.

Another brawn took a swing at my head, and I quickly snapped out of my thoughts and flowed back into the easy rhythm of fighting. I felt like I had to be blushing from the way I had been thinking about Ed. It was all right for me to have a crush on him, I just had to keep reminding myself that it would always be one-sided. Otherwise I knew my heart would get broken.

* * *

"Wow, Rebecca," Al said as I knocked my twelfth brawn of the day to the ground. I grinned up at him and clapping my hands together as if I was merely slapping off some pesky dust. "I didn't notice before how similar your fighting style is to Brother's. Did you learn that from Teacher while you were staying with her?"

"Not really," I laughed, looking over at Ed, who rolled his eyes and sighed. Al seemed to notice the exchange and looked between the two of us curiously, then shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly.

"So, how many does that make that we've taken down? Ed asked, nudging one of the brawns with his foot. The large man barely moved at the contact, clearly unconscious.

"I've handled twelve," I grinned, and was pleased to see Ed's eyes widen slightly before he composed himself and looked over to Al.

"I think we may have taken down around eighteen or twenty," Al said slowly. "I lost track of the exact number a while ago."

"So that makes it about thirty," Ed sighed, leaning against the wall behind him. He then reached into his pocket, pulled out the infamous pocket watch and snapped it open, shielding it from view with his hand. I winced, wondering how he would feel about the fact that I even knew that little secret of his. "We've been wandering around these stupid halls for about four hours now, taken down thirty big and stupids, and there hasn't even been a window yet? How freaking big is this place?!"

He snapped his watch shut again and jammed it back into his pocket with a huff. I took a breath, knowing that it would be easy for me to get us out of the situation.

"I wish that—"

"Ray, _no_," Ed said sternly before I had a chance to get any farther. "We're doing this the old-fashioned way. I need to find out who's behind this and why they think it's alright to kidnap an entire room of people." I bit my lip, but nodded in agreement, knowing he was right. Though it was also what I expected Ed to do after watching the entire series. It was just what Ed did, like he couldn't even help himself from solving problems.

"What are you two talking about?" Al asked, glancing quickly between us. Ed sighed and closed his eyes.

"Nothing important, Al. Just forget about it."

"Don't you lie to me like that, it _is_ something important, I can see it in your eyes!" Al snapped back, making me jump. "It's something _very_ important!"

"I'll tell you later, alright, Al?!" Ed snapped back just as quickly. "Just shut up!" I bit my lip, wishing for peace between the brothers before it escalated into a real fight. I then winced, realizing just how I had phrased it in my head. The two brothers relaxed instantly, Ed getting an almost serene expression on his face. He then frowned slightly and looked at me.

"Ray?" He said it as if it were a cross between questioning me and scolding me.

"Sorry," I muttered. Ed sighed and shook his head, but I could tell that my wish-induced calm still had a tight grip on him.

"Just… Try not to do that until we've sorted all this out, alright? Unless it's some sort of emergency," Ed said gently. I nodded quickly, even though most of the times I had slipped just from unconscious habit of using the word "wish" when I wanted something.

"I _really_ wish you would tell me what's going on," Al said, his voice was dripping with the calm that I knew was my fault.

"I will," Ed said, and then he grinned. "As long as it stays so that you're the one saying the wishes and not Rebecca." I snorted and put a hand over my mouth to prevent myself from laughing more.

"So, now—" Ed started, but was suddenly cut off.

"Hey, you!" a voice shouted down the hall. We all turned simultaneously to see who it was. "Are you the ones who have taken down so many of our men?

"So what if we are?" Ed yelled back towards them. There were three men running down the hall towards us, all dressed in military uniforms. They were smaller men than we had been used to seeing, more like the one that had been commanding six brawns earlier before. They had to be the brains, but obviously not _the_ brain, the one who was in charge of everything.

"The boss wants to meet you," one of the men said calmly. "She gives her word that none of you will be hurt, she only wants to talk face-to-face with the three who've been causing so many disruptions."

"How are we supposed to be sure this boss of yours will stick to that agreement?" Ed said, his lips pulling backwards a bit as he spoke. He almost looked like a dog growling at someone who was threatening its territory, especially with the way he was standing in front of Al and me, arms extended out to either side as if to protect us. Or maybe as if he were saying, _"Mine. Not yours. Mine."_

I sighed. Of course he wouldn't want anything to happen to Al or me. If Al really died, he wouldn't be able to get him back to normal, and if I died, then there would be no chance of me even trying to restore them to normal.

_Now anything I do, any act of kindness I show towards you, you're probably going to wonder if I really mean it, or if I'm only manipulating you to try and get our bodies back._

I frowned, but didn't have much time to think back to the one line Ed had murmured to me hours ago.

"Why else would our boss send out three guys like us without even giving us weapons?" the man in front said, freezing in place and not approaching Ed, deciding he'd rather play it safe. "You've taken out thirty-three of our men. Believe me kid, we don't have much of anyone left to attack you with."

Ed glared between the three men, obviously trying to figure out what to do. He glanced back over his shoulder, and I nodded, trying to encourage him to go with the men. If he wanted to figure out what was going on, following the men would be one of the easiest ways to do it.

'_Did you do this?'_ he mouthed to me silently, nodding his head in the direction of the soldiers. I shook my head quickly, knowing that I certainly hadn't wished for an easy way out of things just after Ed had told me not to. Ed visibly relaxed and turned back to look at the three men.

"Alright, fine. Lead the way," he said with a bitter edge to his voice. The man in front nodded, then turned on his heel and went back the way he had come. Ed turned around and looked straight at me.

"How are you doing, Rebecca?" he asked me quietly. "You look… exhausted." I frowned in surprise. I didn't _feel _exhausted. I knew I had a few scrapes from all the fighting, but I hadn't thought they'd made me look _that_ bad.

"I feel… fine," I said with a grin. Ed frowned as if he didn't believe me.

"You took out twelve guys on your own," he pressed. "Al and I took out twenty-one, but that's ten and a half a piece, and we were working with one another. Not to mention that we've done this loads of times before."

"Brother has a point," Al said, and I looked up at him, feeling slightly irritated. "You probably feel fine because of the adrenaline in your body. You should take it easy for a bit. We don't want you passing out from exhaustion on us."

"Or asthma," Ed added, his eyes icy.

"Wouldn't that count as an emergency and therefore I'd be able to do something?" I countered, remembering back to what Ed had told me. He frowned, still staring at me.

"Don't push yourself that far anyway," he muttered. "Now let's catch up to those… guys and find out what's going on here."

We followed quickly behind the three men, Ed shooting glances at me every five minutes or so. I sighed; it was getting more annoying every time he did it. But it didn't seem like we'd be meeting this "boss" quickly anyway, considering how the mansion seemed to stretch on forever. After Ed had pointed it out, I noticed that he was right, there really were no windows in the hallways we were going through. So either the mansion was huge, or someone had been allergic to sunlight and not put in any windows at all.

We walked briskly through the hallways for what felt like hours, each passing minute begging to feel more and more like we were only being led to the center of a labyrinth where the monster was waiting. And for all I knew, there was a monster waiting, I had seen some of the terrible things alchemy could do.

Finally we reached a set of huge double doors that looked as if they were made of mahogany. The men stopped in front of it as if waiting for something.

I took the extra time to inspect the door. It had beautiful carvings covering all of the wood so fully that I hadn't noticed it at first. The carvings had almost looked like the actual grain of the wood itself with the way they flowed easily down the length of the door. But as I stared closer, I could pick out twisting bodies of naked women, with expressions on their faces that looked like a cross between horror and adoration. I followed the gaze of the wooden women to the top of the door and saw what they were looking at.

It looked like a man… at first. At first sight, he looked amazingly beautiful, smiling down at the women lovingly. But then I looked closer, and his face seemed to distort, becoming more fearsome, the angles of his face suddenly looking sharper, and when I looked at the eyes again, he didn't look loving at all, just hungry. Like he hadn't eaten at all in months.

I shuddered and looked away. Who would want such a door in their home?

"Come in," a throaty voice said, and I realized it was what the three uniformed men had been waiting for, though I didn't know how the voice inside had known we were there. No one had knocked. The three uniformed men took a step forward, and the huge wooden doors swung inwards at a frustratingly slow pace.

We stepped inside the room once the doors were open enough to let us pass, me shuddering a bit as I passed through, feeling like the man in the carving was looking down at _me_ hungrily. I waited for the uniformed men to follow us through, but instead they nodded and let the doors swing shut.

The room behind the doors was just as big and ornate. Finally we could see the outside world through the first windows in the mansion. The windows took up the entire wall opposite the huge doors. The last I could remember of outside, it had been pitch black, but through the windows it showed that the sun was just beginning to rise. It felt like it should have been much later in the day after all we had gone through.

In front of the windows was a large desk made from the same wood as the doors. I could even see similar carvings running up the sides of the desk, but I shivered and decided not to look any closer, remembering just how much I hadn't liked the carvings of the door.

But no one sat behind the desk. Instead she stood to the side of the desk, her arms crossed as she looked us over. It was the same Xingese girl that had been at the festival in town, and in the street late at night. The same girl who had beat up Ed.

I clenched my jaw, trying to stop myself from wishing she would disappear. Ed would definitely know that was my fault. But would making her write on the floor in pain do to stop him from questioning her later?

I frowned and shook my head. That thought seemed much too similar to Envy's way of thinking. _'She doesn't need her arms to grant wishes, does she?'_ I shuddered and took a breath, trying to still my anger.

Though Ed seemed to be having more trouble with the same problem. He looked ready to explode.

"I thought it'd be one of you two," the girl grinned, looking between Ed and Al. "You both seemed ready to fight me every step of the way. I'm glad to see you've both seemed to introduce yourself." She then stopped, ignoring Ed's glare as she looked at me.

"But her… What is she, your pet?" she asked, glancing back at Ed. It only seemed to infuriate him more. "She follows you everywhere, but she's so easy to take down. Such a weak little girl. Perhaps a lover?"

Ed yelled wordlessly before lunging at the girl. Al reached out and held him back with practiced ease while the girl circled around me. I wondered why he wasn't letting Ed simply attack the girl, she did seem to be our enemy, after all.

I also wondered why Ed wasn't keeping a cooler head. I had seen him fight plenty of climatic battles in the anime before, but he always stayed calm, almost like a cat playing with his prey at times. He only lost it at the beginning, when there was less at stake. I'd even seen him deal with Envy calling him pipsqueak multiple times—just a few hours ago—but Ed had still kept a cool face in order to get the information he'd wanted. So what was bothering him so much?

"What's so special about you, little girl?" the Xingese girl murmured as she walked around me, appraising me. She looked like she was only my age, and yet she was calling _me_ the little girl. "Why does he keep you around? I'm sure he could find much prettier pets if he wanted to… What d you have that other girls don't?"

Ed growled from his spot in Al's arms and I bit my lip. I had to distract the girl from my uniqueness in some way, but I wasn't sure how.

"Why'd you kidnap everyone?" I asked, feeling like my throat had decided to die. It was the best question I could come up with from the little information I knew. The girl laughed and looked back to Ed.

"So she's smart," she said, while Ed stopped his struggling for a minute to catch his breath. I bit my lip again and motioned for Ed to keep still for a bit. It wouldn't do good to have him completely depleted of energy when he really did have to fight the girl. He seemed to notice my movement and nodded, albeit a little reluctantly.

"It still wouldn't explain why you'd keep her around though," the girl murmured, turning her attention back to me. "Wouldn't she just drag someone like you down? She looks like any other ordinary girl…"

I nearly laughed in triumph. Ed had succeeded in what he had tried to do by fixing my hair and all the other little details. Not even a girl trying to find something strange about me could tell I was foreign.

"But why—"

"Yes, yes, I know, why'd I kidnap everyone?" the girl sighed, cutting me off. "Why does anyone in this world do anything important? I did it for power." I frowned, confused by her answer. I had figured it'd be for power somehow, but I wasn't sure what exactly she meant.

Then my mind flicked back to memories of sitting at home, curled up with my Fullmetal Alchemist manga and I could feel my jaw drop. Xing was a country with numerous clans, each vying for power. The emperor would go to a woman from each clan and end up making her pregnant so that each clan had an heir to the throne.

But the emperor had also been getting closer and closer to death, so each of the heirs to the throne had been trying desperately to find some way to buy favor with the emperor so they could move higher up the chain of heirs.

"How do you expect to help your clan through kidnapping innocent Amestrians?" I said, feeling the words rasp uncomfortably in my throat. I heard a smack over to the side, and looked to see that Ed had slapped his palm to his forehead. He looked up at me, grinned and gave me a thumbs up sign.

"At first I wasn't planning to go that direction," the girl said slowly, looking me over. "My mother… she's very sick, she needs hospital treatment badly. But she can't afford it. So I came to Amestris planning to find a rich man to marry and use his money to help mother."

"Which would be the owner of this mansion," I pressed. All I wanted to do was keep her talking to make sure she wouldn't figure out anything about me. I knew all too well that many people in the world of FMA wanted that kind of power _badly_, and some would go to any means to get it.

"Yes," she answered, her eyes flicking downwards. "To my surprise, I actually fell in love with _him_, not his money.

"At first, everything was fine. I lived happily in the mansion, though I didn't get to see Harry too often. His butlers told me that he was trying to help this town and that he was always in his office, working on some sort of alchemy mumbo-jumbo. I used my spare time to explore around this house, drawing myself maps to help find my way.

"Then one day, I discovered his secret. How many women really come to the mansion, why his house is so large. How many of these disappear and never talk to their families again. I don't want to think about how many children he's fathered.

"I knew then that I couldn't count on Harry to support my mother. I had to find a way to both help her and escape from… this. And then I realized that I could become empress and help not only my own family, and my own problems, but the entire clan. So I tried to find a way to buy favor with the emperor.

"And then these trains started getting rerouted," she grinned over at Ed and Al. "I was curious; I listened to rumors of the servants. They kept saying that a god had come to Amestris, that this was only the beginning and that this god of theirs would save the country from its dark hour. At first I thought it was pointless superstition, but the deeper I dug, the more I found that there was some possibility of an enormous power."

I glanced over at Ed and Al. Of course I couldn't read any emotions on Al's face, as usual, but Ed was completely limp in Al's arms, staring straight at me. I flinched and looked back to the Xingese girl.

"And then, one day, a rerouted train, one of these supposed chariots of this god, lands right on my doorstep," she smiled at me. "I pulled some strings, used connections, and I found everyone from the train and brought them here. I figured that all I had to do was wait for a hero. Surely a god wouldn't let innocent people suffer. And it worked. Your two friends came running, leaving the doors wide open for everyone else to escape through. They couldn't help themselves from helping everyone else. So what does that make you, the god's pet, his entertainment? What makes you so special to a god?"

"You've got it all wrong," Ed spat, slipping out easily from Al's grasp.

"You," the girl smiled at Ed as he approached her. "Of course it's you, who could deny that a god would come in a beautiful form? And what's the other one then, your demon?"

Ed punched her in the gut.

"Al is not a demon," he growled, grabbing her by the collar. "And Rebecca is not some _pet_. And _you_ have no right to chase her until she passes out. I thought that—that—she—"

"So, a lover then," the Xingese girl smiled. Ed growled and punched her in the jaw.

"You want to fight again, runt?" The girl said, frowning at him and rubbing her jaw.

"Hell yeah," Ed said in reply. Before I could register what was going on, Ed swung his automail foot up and kicked her hard in the side. The girl slid to the other side of the room and glared at Ed.

I took a step forward, then glanced over at Al and noticed that he wasn't making any move to help Ed. I hesitated, wondering why he wouldn't try to help Ed.

"Aren't you going to help him?"

"Only if he gets into trouble," Al said with a laugh. "Otherwise he'll accuse me of meddling afterwards."

"Oh." I sighed and shifted my weight to the opposite foot.

Ed was definitely angrier than the last time I had seen him fight the Xingese girl. His moves were more rapid than the last time; he wasn't letting her have a single chance to attack him. It was like his muscles had become tornados and he was merely letting out the energy within. So it wasn't much of a surprise when the Xingese girl fell to the ground with a cry, Ed glaring at her from above. He then clapped his hands together and a bright blue light shone around them both, making me turn my eyes away. When I looked back, the floor had warped and rippled to wrap around the girl from the chest down.

"I send someone to get you out of here and make sure this Harry guy is taken away," Ed said icily. "You'll be taken back to Xing." Ed then turned for the door, glancing at both Al and me. Al shook his head and headed towards the door as well. I bit my lip and hesitated before going over to the Xingese girl.

"What's your name?" I asked, crouching down in front of her.

"Kimei."

"My name's Rebecca," I said, glancing back up at the doorway. Ed and Al both stood there, silently watching me. "Do you really wish your mother would get better?"

Kimei looked at me with wide eyes and nodded, letting out a half-strangled sob. I bit my lip as I looked at her. She didn't seem like a _bad _person, she had just gotten into a bad set of circumstances and felt trapped. It wasn't like I couldn't relate with that feeling. It just didn't seem fair to leave her with nothing.

"I really wish she would get better too, Kimei," I said, glancing back up at Ed. He had his arms crossed, simply staring at me steadily. I couldn't tell whether he approved or not. I looked back to Kimei and whispered, "Good luck." At least she would have a well mother waiting her when she got home. I then stood up and walked over to Ed and Al.

I mostly looked at Ed, wondering if he would rebuke me for the wish. He didn't say anything before he turned and led the way out of the huge manor.

--

"Let her sleep Al, she's had a long day."

"I thought you might be uncomfortable."

"I'm fine."

I exhaled slowly and readjusted myself. I felt like I hadn't slept in years, and the pillow I was on was so _comfy_. I wasn't sure who had managed to snag me a pillow on a train, but I was extremely grateful for it. I wanted to stay there forever and just listen to Ed talk.

"What happens if we reach Central and she's still asleep?" Al sounded like he was amused with something. "Are you going to wake her up then, or carry her off the train?"

"She's not going to sleep that long."

"Okay, okay."

I snuggled against my pillow, stuck between waiting for Ed to talk again and enjoying the silence. My thoughts flickered back to the idea of facing Mustang, but somehow, knowing that I had so much power at my disposal—even if it scared me a little—made the thought of facing Mustang a whole lot easier.

"I've been wondering about that mansion," Al said thoughtfully.

"Yeah, me too. Remember how that Kimei girl mentioned that guy was always doing alchemic 'mumbo-jumbo'?"

"And all those girls who suddenly would disappear… Do you think they really ran off to hide their pregnancy?"

"You're sounding a little dark now, Al," Ed laughed.

"You were thinking it too, admit it!"

"Yeah, I was," Ed sighed. "The only windows in that place were in the guy's official office. It's like he was trying to hide himself from the world."

"You really think he was trying to create a Philosopher's Stone? There were all sorts of soldiers around that place!"

"Al, for all we know, he might have been trying to create a stone _for_ the military. And if that was really the case, I wouldn't be able to do much more than beat him up. He'd be protected from arrest, even if it were Mustang's men."

Both brothers sighed and fell silent again.

"So Brother, now that you're awake, are you ready to tell me what the deal with Rebecca is?"

Ed sighed heavily a second time.

"Well, I—maybe. I'd kinda prefer to have her awake for some of that, you know?"

"Then tell me what you can."

"Well," Ed said the word slowly, as if he were considering it. I could feel my muscles clench as I wondered what Al's response would be.

"She's… She's really… Have you felt that funny feeling when you're around her?"

"What funny feeling?" Al sounded like he was about to start cracking up. I didn't even know how he could manage to sound like that.

"I dunno, like… like a feeling of power. Like alchemy, but different… Like when you touch metal and get a static shock."

"I don't know about the static shock part, but yeah, I've felt that. What about it?"

"She's powerful," Ed said in a low whisper. "And I don't just mean powerful, she's _really_ powerful. She doesn't use Equivalent Exchange or anything. She can even manipulate _people_. I've never seen anything like it."

"What do you mean 'she can manipulate _people_'?"

"Remember when we were close to fighting? And then there was this weird wave of calmness?"

"That was Rebecca?"

"Yeah. The closest comparison it has it alchemy, but even that doesn't cover it. She can get anything she wants. When I've seen her do it aloud, she always says 'I wish,' but sometimes she does it without saying anything."

"So, what, she says, 'I wish money were falling from the sky' and money would fall from the sky?"

"As far as I know, yeah."

"How far can she push that power? How much could she do?"

"I… I'm not really sure. Envy said that she could even… wish someone back to life."

"And it'd work? Wow. You think that—"

"Maybe. I don't want to ask her right away though. The whole experience kinda… traumatized her, I think. I think she's scared of her power. She was worried she wasn't even human at first."

"Understandable. "But you know, Brother, I think that—"

"Now arriving in Central station." I winced internally at the sound of the crackly intercom. The nice thought about it was that I didn't have to listen to Ed and Al talk about my wishing anymore. I didn't really want to get up either, though.

"Crap, already? I thought we had another half hour, at least!" Al chuckled at Ed's upset tone, and I snuggled into my pillow again. I just needed another minute, then I would be able to get up easily, I knew it.

"Aw, come on, Ray," Ed sighed, and I felt my pillow shift. I groaned and nuzzled into it again. I didn't want Ed pulling it out from under me.

"It's okay," he said slowly, the pillow shifting again. "We're just going to get off the train, okay? Everything's fine, just keep sleeping." I could feel an arm wrap gently around my shoulders and pull me into a sitting position. I moaned at the loss of the pillow.

"It's fine, it's fine, we'll get you someplace comfy in a minute, just bear with me," Ed kept talking in the same even tone, and I couldn't help but relax at the sound. I could feel something slip under my legs and my shoulders, and then found that another pillow had been placed against one cheek. I grinned to myself and cuddled against it.

"Jeez. Someone's sleepy."

"You know, I could carry her, Brother."

"Nah, that'd be too uncomfortable. One metal arm's got to be better than two."

"Alright, if you insist."

The world jostled around me, and I wondered why for a brief second before it suddenly dawned on me. Something solid under my legs. Something solid under my shoulders. And something solid and warm against my cheek.

Ed was carrying me. And bridal style, no less! My eyes snapped open and I looked up at him in surprise.

"Well, look who's not dead!" He laughed and looked me in the eye. "Just a sec, okay, Rebecca?"He readjusted me and then carefully sat me down on something hard and solid. The train station bench. I blinked and looked back up at Ed, wondering if I was still dreaming.

"Don't worry, we'll get you someplace comfy soon," he reassured me. I nodded, still feeling caught in a blur.

I could barely remember managing to trudge up what felt like a million streets before I finally saw a bed in front of me and collapsed on it immediately, not caring about the rest of my surroundings.

* * *

_**Lesson of the Day**__**—Sort of random trivia**__**: **_

Because I like Lesson of the Day. It'd make me sad to not have it.

Anyway, I was originally planning for the Harry dude to be rumored to be a vampire, or an incubus, or something like that. That was why I started with the door where he looked ready to eat poor innocent women.

But then I realized that I just finished the fourth Twilight book, and that decision might have been slightly biased. So I left out the vampire rumors and just made him a womanizer. Yeah, randomness.

So sue me.

* * *

_**Author's Note: **_

-jaw drops to floor- Lookit how fast I updated this one! Do you guys love me or what now? I just wanted to finish up all the loose ends and finally get those three out of stinkin' Bakenhaert. This wasn't originally how I was planning things to be when they got to Central, but oh well, go with the flow. I like it a lot better, really.

Anywho, **IMPORTANT NEWS CONCERNING ED/RAY… STUFF!**

Yes, I _know_ I promsed I wouldn't have any Ed/OC in this story. I'm aware. And I also know this has taken more of a turn towards the Ed/OC sort of story. If I posted this the way I normally would with a fanfic, it would be about 29 chapters long, so I feel pretty justified In saying that their relationships would have grown and changed in that amount of time. Heck, the longest I've done before is 25 chapters, and that had Ed/OC _before_ the end of those 25.

So anyway, I was originally planning on no Ed/Ray at all. Then I changed and figured it'd be in the sequel. Right now… my muse is trying to push me into Ed/OC in _this_ story, and I've been fighting him every step of the way so far, though I've had to compromise and put in some sweet moments anyway.

So, I want to know what you guys think. I've been debating the issue back and forth between myself, and I'm curious to know what other people think. Of course, my word is still the final say, but I want to know what people besides me think would actually benefit the storyline and still keep it believable.

Don't go telling me you want Ed/Ray just because you have the burning desire to see them kiss next chapter. I knooow it's hard to read all the sweet scenes if you like Ed/OC stuff, but you'll have to bear with those frustrating moments even if I decide to have that in this story.

Anyway, that's it, thanks a lot to all of you guys in advance! :D

…And jeez, that all sounded so serious. Sorry about that. –dies in corner-

* * *

_**Review Replies (thanks so much everyone!):**_

**Lulu4ever:**Lol, so true, so true. Ed likes his danger too much.

**agent000:**Lol, that's so awesome! I could remember giving your Ed a few spoilers a ways back, so I figured that you'd remember that and be totally prepared for this coming. –laughs- it's pretty awesome to get you so surprised and excited like that, I don't manage responses like this from you_ too_ often. ;)

Yeah, and if anyone else cares enough to read this, they'll be scratching their head and going "Huh? What does she mean 'your Ed'? What Ed is she talking about?"

Lol, and the way you say Ray needs to use her power wisely makes it sound like she's Spiderman or something now. Hey, she could be if she wanted to, but I don't think that's really going to happen, haha.

**SpandexTree:**Yeah, I noticed that a while back. Sorry, I know I promised back at the beginning there'd be no Ed/Ray stuff. I'm going to try my best so that they're only friends. That line usually is pretty obvious, you're right, though in real life people ask that and it doesn't always lead to something. Sometimes they're just friends. And yeah, no offense taken, I felt pretty bad about that when I noticed it myself a few chapters back. D:

**anime.storm:** Lol, so glad I could oblige. And why's it _my_ fault you're not doing your homework? Go do your homework before your parents yell at _me_!

XD Kidding. Here's the update, I'd prefer not to be hunted and sporked. Please?

**vampgirl16:** Lol, thanks so much, here's some more for you.

**Xantanen:** -laughs and falls over- Wow, thanks so much. Not the most creative review, maybe, but definitely makes a person feel good. Thanks a lot, I'm really glad you like it so much. I hope your brain manages to resurrct itself too, I don't want you going brainless because of lil' ol' me. XD

And yes, I have started a HPFMA fic. I haven't gotten past the first chapter yet, since I have so many unfinished stories and I kinda want to take care of that. It's called Alphonse Elric and the Red Tattoo if you're interested in it. Hopefully I'll get around to it soon enough, its fanbase seems to have grown since I posted that first chapter.

**Colonel Bastard:** Yep, classic. Of course, Ed had to force it on her. I've had some guys offer, and I end up saying "No, I'm fine" until they shrug and keep the jacket on, lol.

-snickers- I never even thought that one line would be so awesome to someone. I even debated putting it in for a bit, but then I figured, to hell with it, Sheska's cute enough, and if people don't like that one line, then tough. XD

Lol, and that does sound like a hilarious picture. And you say you actually drew it? I'd seriously _love_ to see that so much. I've never had any fanart for Wish Granted, so it'd be really awesome to see that. Really really really awesome.

And don't worry about the way you review, the longer you make a review, the more I spazz when I first see it. I luv zee long reviews. Even if they're incredibly silly. Probably moreso, really.

**Zilo Sugarpill:** Lol, all is forgiven, don't worry about it. XD And yeah, Rebecca's got powers! It's so much fun! Wheeee! –spins in circles-

Ed: I think she's tired from not having a nap in order to finish this.

I dun wanna nap!

Ed: I knew you needed one… Psycho.

Freako. Anyway! –wishes Risty May a chocolate bar- There ya go! And yeah, no kiss. It's so sad. Though it'd probably freak poor Rebecca out and she could end up slapping Ed. Even if it IS someone you have a crush on, having a guy suddenly lean in towards you for a kiss when you're not even dating is pretty scary!

Ed: You're scared of weird things.

Yeah, well… You should have kissed her anyway!

Ed: Jeez, I give and give, and it's never enough. And don't go writing Envy/Ray scenes that will scar anyone under thirteen.

I think it would scar you even though you're over thirteen.

Ed: …Yes. Don't do it.

And –snickers you're welcome to steal the Omake. I'm just sad I couldn't make something like that into a complete scene. So now here's the next chapter for you, have fun!

**Draconian Master:** Lol, thanks! :) Here's the update for ya!

**White Alchemist Taya:**Haha, thanks, glad to hear it.


	11. Chapter 11

_**The votes are in, and everyone who took the time to vote unanimously voted for Ed/Ray! XD Again, this is MY decision, but it did help me feel reassured that this chapter would really be okay to post. So, enjoy!**_

_**11. Visiting Colonel– **_

_**Whadda mean 'no swearing in the chapter title'??**_

I don't know how I got persuaded into writing this. More like brainwashed. I would bet my money on Ray, though. All she has to do is give me that puppy dog look and I'm like putty in her hands. On a warm summer's day, at that. Next thing you know, I'm helping her write this whole story.

Now, I would start at the end and tell you how everything turned out, since that's the part of my life that's clearest right now and I don't want to forget it. The details of how we got there can always be filled in later, the end's the most important anyway.

But, of course, Ray says I can't do that. So then I would go back to when I first met Rebecca, but she's already written that, so it would be repetitive and boring. So then, the question is, where do _I_ start? Especially with Ray constantly peeking over my shoulder every few minutes to read what I've written!

Sigh. I guess that Bakenhaert would be the best place to begin.

Ever since I was young, I had known the name Bakenhaert. If there was a day where I couldn't have a sandwich, it was usually because Bakenhaert had had a bad week and bread prices had risen all over the country. It had always been somewhere in my life, usually concerned with food.

But until I met Rebecca, saying the word "Bakenhaert" never brought on the slew of emotions it does now. So much happened in that one little town.

Of course, I had known there was something… well, _different _(to put it lightly) about Rebecca ever since I met her. At first I thought it was an evil sort of different, but something about Rebecca threw me off. Something deep in my gut simply wanted to trust her, even when _I_ wanted to do anything but.

And then Envy told me what she was capable of, and it was probably one of the few most confusing moments of my life. First over whether or not to believe Envy, second over whether or not I liked Rebecca being able to do that, and third over why I still cared about her in almost the exact same way. Except that once I knew what her power was, I suddenly found it very easy to trust her completely. Which was yet another confusing matter. I didn't think I could usually trust people that much unless I had known them for years, but I had known Rebecca for less than a week.

And then there was the whole problem with the sudden protective surge I had whenever something happened to Rebecca. When she passed out, I felt like I was dead until she finally managed to open her eyes. I didn't even like the thought of her fighting stupid thugs, but she seemed stubborn on the idea of "helping" me. I wanted to scream at her that the best way to help me with anything was to make sure she didn't die.

Now, every time I say the word "Bakenhaert," all these thoughts come flowing into my head, all in one instant. I've heard some people talk about a turning point that happened in their lives, and looking back, I would say that Bakenhaert is my turning point. Before Bakenhaert, I'd had my own stumbling routine that I associated with getting through life. Now I don't see how I could ever go back to that.

After Bakenhaert, I was exhausted both physically and mentally. I had never used the military barracks before, but I didn't want to deal with the hassle of trying to find an empty room to stay in anywhere else in Central. I knew that at least the military barracks would be able to set me up _somewhere_. At that point I didn't even care if it was in Mustang's personal office. It didn't seem like Rebecca really cared either, considering she seemed to be barely managing to keep herself upright after her nap on the train. I was grateful that at least she had decided to sleep on my flesh leg instead of the automail one. My automail leg could have probably made her face go numb for hours.

When we got to the room, I saw that there was only one bed and wondered if Rebecca and Al were even allowed in the barracks. I didn't really care, I just didn't want either of them thrown in a jail cell because of me.

Now, on a normal trip with Al, having only one bed wouldn't haven even made me think twice. With Rebecca, however, I panicked when I saw only the one bed in the room. Both of us needed somewhere to sleep, but there was only one bed. They only way we could both have the comfort of a bed was if we shared, but that wasn't something you did with a girl unless you were married to her or were a girl yourself.

Luckily I didn't have too long to think about the problem before Rebecca collapsed on the bed and fell asleep almost instantly. That made it easy for me, all I had to do was be the gentleman and sleep on the floor if she'd take the bed. I had slept in all sort of places that weren't the most comfortable, I knew I could deal with a hardwood floor easily.

It was easier to fall asleep on a hard floor when I was exhausted than it would be otherwise. Even so, though I was exhausted and wanted to fall asleep quickly, I ended up lying awake for hours mulling over Rebecca before I fell asleep.

* * *

"Give him back!" I screamed instinctively when I saw the familiar glowing white… shape in front of me. It almost looked human shaped, but also not. It was almost like a hole in space where a human was _supposed_ to be.

Truth.

Or at least, that was the best name I knew for the human-shaped absence.

"Dammit, give him back! He's the only family I have!" I yelled and lunged at Truth. Maddeningly, I could never get close enough to even try touching Truth.

'_Give him back? How can I give back what you've stolen?'_

"He's my brother!" I screamed and fell to my knees, trying my best to keep breathing.

'_Maybe if you value his body so much, some sort of_ exchange _can be reached.'_

I looked up hopefully and saw that bone-chilling smirk on the humanoid absence. Or maybe I just knew it was saying the sort of things a person would grin evilly at, and my mind was filling in the smile itself. I wasn't entirely sure.

"Yes," I whispered. "There's nothing more important than getting Al back. I have to fix my mistake. I'd trade anything."

'Any_thing? Are you sure about that?'_

"What do you—" I stopped mid sentence as Rebecca poked her head from around Truth. She bit her lip, which I had figured out to be a normal sign of when she was nervous.

"I—I can't kill her just to get Al back!"

'_No one said anything about killing.' _

"Then what would I be losing?" Truth glanced back at Rebecca, who flinched. I could feel my fists tighten until my automail creaked in protest. I didn't want Rebecca to be scared. And so help me, if she got hurt—

I could feel myself relax slightly as Rebecca stood up and walked over to me. As long as she was near me, there was some chance that I'd be able to protect her. I could—

"I love you, Ed," she whispered, and then flung her arms around my neck. I could feel myself stiffen at the sudden contact. Now _there_ was something I hadn't been expecting. I could feel my heart speed up in an attempt to make sure that blood was properly reaching every entire freaking inch of my body. I winced and backed slightly away from Rebecca, hoping she wouldn't notice.

She looked me in the eye and smiled—I nearly melted into goo on the spot—and then frowned as if she was worried about something. I found I couldn't help but stare at the way her lip puckered when she did so, wondering if her lips really would be as soft as they looked.

Her frown deepened, and I found I couldn't help myself any longer. I was too curious, and the opportunity was too irresistible. I leaned in towards her until I was so close I felt like everything around me was Rebecca, except that I knew I could get even closer, fill even more of my world with her.

Next thing I knew, both my lips were wrapped around her bottom lip—they really were as soft as they looked, softer, even—and she was pressing into me, her back arched.

But I knew I could get even closer. I had to get rid of the ache that came from a frantic heart and unbalanced blood flow. I pressed harder against her, trying to tell her that was what I wanted, no, _needed_. I wrapped dark locks of hair around my fingers and hugged her against me, but it still wasn't enough. I needed her even closer.

I felt her pull away from me, and felt as if I had been ripped into a million pieces. I nearly clutched her to me again, screamed at her that I needed her close, but the look in her eyes made me stop.

She looked frightened.

No, terrified.

I thought I could hear the sound of glass shattering as I let go of her shoulders. Was I the one who had scared her? What—

'That's_ what you'd give in exchange. If you ever asked her for your bodies back, you'd never be able to get what you really want. She'd never be able to love you after that.' _

It seemed like Truth was right about that from the look in Rebecca's eyes.

"No!"

I sat up with a jolt, breathing heavily until I realized it had been a dream. I took a deep breath and pressed my left hand against my forehead, only to find I was completely soaked in sweat. I sighed and pressed my automail hand against my forehead instead. It was refreshingly cool, especially compared to my flesh arm. There were at least _some_ advantages to having automail.

Something jabbed my side suddenly. I yelped and jumped to my feet, only to find the jab was just a startled Rebecca. She looked at me with wide eyes and I exhaled in an attempt to calm myself.

However, that didn't do much of anything to help. It felt like someone had wrapped their hand around my heart and was squeezing it as hard as they could. And I had a faint idea where all that freshly squeezed blood was going. I fidgeted nervously, hoping Rebecca wouldn't notice anything.

Why was I thinking about Rebecca like that? I hadn't even known her a week, for pete's sake! I had barely even started think of her like a friend, and then I had to start thinking like _that_? What the hell was wrong with me?

"Why'd you sleep on the floor, Ed?" Rebecca asked, cocking her head to one side.

I winced internally and reminded myself never to say "Rebecca" and any form of the word "cock" in a sentence together again.

"You took the bed," I shrugged, hoping I'd be able to escape to the bathroom quickly. A hot shower would probably do me good anyway. Yeah, Rebecca would do me—

I nearly swore aloud and kicked at the bed as the sentence popped into my head. Rebecca had climbed out of the bed and was looking at me as if she were trying to figure out what could be bugging me.

"Oh, here," Rebecca said, suddenly glancing down and seeing my jacket around her shoulders. She pulled it off and threw it to me. I caught it in my hands easily, and then realized that the jacket smelled like Rebecca after she had worn it for an entire day. I took a deep breath to try and calm myself again, before I realized that breathing wouldn't help when the air was exactly what was setting me off.

"What time is it?" I muttered, trying to change the topic as well as I could.

"Uh…six o'clock," Rebecca said with a glance to her watch. I felt like my eyes would bug out of my head. It definitely wasn't six o' clock at night. Even if it was a bit dark out, I could tell it was getting brighter. Which meant it was six in the morning. And Mustang wouldn't be in his office until at least ten. That meant I had at least four more awkward hours with Rebecca. I wanted to go back to bed, but I was afraid of having another dream that involved Rebecca.

"Are you okay, Ed? Rebecca asked, leaning forward. I groaned and closed my eyes.

_No, I'm not okay. I just so happen to be running through all the different ways I could push you onto this bed and rip your clothes off. Even though I know Al could come back any second and I just want to think of you like a _friend_, not like _that_. _

"I'm fine," I muttered and rubbed at my forehead exasperatedly. "I just… I just had a bad dream, that's all."

"Oh. Right," Rebecca said softly. "I'm sorry."

I opened my eyes and looked at her. She really did look as if she understood. I could remember her telling me she knew _everything_ about me, but I hadn't thought much about it. Did she even know my dreams?

"Do… do you know what I dreamt about last night?" I whispered, feeling panic creep through my body. If she knew what I had dreamed about her, how my subconscious thought about her…

"Well, I know that sometimes you have dreams about the Gate—"

Crap.

"—Because you saw it the night you and Al… did… you know…"

Cra—wait. That wasn't the exact dream I'd had. Sure, I had dreams with the Gate a lot, but if she had known what happened in the one with her, wouldn't she be a lot more embarrassed? I hadn't known Rebecca that long, but I figured that was something that would make Rebecca blush and start fidgeting.

She knew the general direction of my dreams, it seemed, but she wouldn't know exactly what I would dream on a particular night. I breathed a sigh of relief. And at least wondering about what Rebecca knew about my life distracted me from wondering other things about her.

"Look, Ray…" I was surprised by how easily I could call her by a nickname, even though I always referred to her as Rebecca in my thoughts. "I think that we need to make sure all our stories are straight before we go see Mustang. He'll want to know about you, and I want to make sure I know the truth. And you need to talk to Al anyway."

"Okay," she said, biting her lip. She was nervous again. "Where _is _Al, anyway?"

Good question. After we had met Rebecca, he'd developed a bit of a habit of disappearing on me. It made me wonder what he was up to. It had to be some sort of evil plot.

"I don't know where he went," I sighed. "Do you want to go try and find him?"

"But then we won't be here, and he might come back wondering where we are." Rebecca frowned and then sighed. "I wish he'd just come back here instead."

I felt like time had frozen as both Rebecca and I suddenly realized what she had just said. She then clapped her hands to her mouth and shook her head with huge eyes.

"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry," she said quickly. "I didn't mean to… I'm _so_ sorry!" I frowned. Why was she apologizing to me? Did she think I would be mad at her for making things easier?

"Ray, I—"

"Hey, you two finally woke up!" I sighed and looked up to Al standing in the doorway.

"Hey, Al." I exhaled slowly and looked over at Rebecca. She looked as if she had just made the world explode. "We were just saying the three of us need to sit down and talk."

"Really?" Al sounded nearly ready to laugh. "That sounds like a great idea to me."

Rebecca sat down on the edge of the bed, fidgeting with her hands. I sat down a few inches away from her, trying to focus my thoughts on thinking about what I really wanted to talk about with her, not about what it'd feel like to run my fingers through her hair.

Al shook his head and then sat down on the floor in front of us. Sitting on the floor, he was actually at eye level for once.

The three of us then fell silent. The only sound in the room was the rustling of Rebecca's hands. She then sighed and lightly clapped her hands together twice. I sighed and put my hand on top of hers to stop her from fidgeting. She looked up at me with wide eyes.

"Don't worry, Ray," I said slowly. The words felt sticky in my mouth. "We… We both know that you have… powers. And we're not running off or anything. We're still here. We want to be your… your…"

I felt like my mind had suddenly locked in place. I had intended to say "friends," but my mouth refused to cooperate. "Friends" seemed too little, and not all that I felt I really wanted her to see me as. But I didn't know what term would cover that. Best friends? Companions?

…Boyfriend?

I felt nearly ready to faint.

"We want to be your friends," Al finished for me. I could only hear him distantly, but I could hear the concern in his voice. He was wondering what I was thinking about. But I couldn't worry about that. My mind was elsewhere.

And to add to everything else, I realized that my hand was still sitting innocently on top of Rebecca's hands. And for once I wasn't wearing a glove. It was just flesh against flesh.

Goosebumps ran down my spine, but I decided to keep my hand in place. If Rebecca said anything, I'd take it away. Until then, I could easily pretend to be oblivious.

Then another thought suddenly occurred to me. I had taken my jacket off before going to sleep on the floor so that my arms were completely bare. Which meant that Rebecca had seen my automail hand in its entirety. I knew that she had known about my automail, but I had completely forgotten that it was an issue with most other people. She hadn't reacted to it at all. No stares, no flinching, nothing. She had treated me completely the same as before.

It didn't seem to matter to her that I was missing two limbs.

I grinned stupidly to myself before I remembered that there were more pressing issues to deal with. I sighed and looked at Rebecca, my mood sobering. The question was, where to begin? There was so much I wanted to know, so much I wanted her to tell me.

"So where do you really come from?" I said after a minute. It seemed like a fair enough question. She definitely wasn't from anywhere nearby. A good place to start.

"America," she answered softly, not bothering to make eye contact.

America? I had never heard of a country with a name like that. It almost sounded similar to Amestris. She _could_ be making it up. I frowned and shook the thought away.

"It's in another world," she continued. I looked back up and noticed her looking at me. She must have noticed my confusion.

But another _world_… that was even more mind boggling than an imaginary country. How could she have traveled from another world? Did she have some sort of machine that took her from one world to the next? Was that how she knew all about my past? And why would she choose Amestris, out of all the worlds in the universe there could be to visit?

"How did you—" I started, and she seemed to understand where I was going.

"I don't know how I got here," she said softly, biting her lip yet again. "I was walking home in the rain… all I remember is a bright flash of light."

"Ah."

We all fell silent, soaking in the information we had just gotten.

Another _world_. What was that like? Obviously Rebecca wasn't too far off from everyone else physically speaking, so either there were humans in her world, or some species that looked awfully similar to humans. But what was the rest of the world like? What sort of things had she seen in her lifetime?

And if she was such a well-learned world traveler, why the hell was she worried about being friends with me? Especially when she knew about my past. Which brought up another question.

"How do you know about our… past?" I asked slowly. I didn't dare look up to stare Rebecca in the eye. I knew she would be giving me an awful look, and I couldn't bear the thought of dealing with that. Who wouldn't respond to our past negatively?

"In my world… Your life… It's been made into this story. With lots of pictures. And it tells the whole story of how you two lost your bodies… and then you joined the military… and how you learned about the homunculi…" she trailed off and I looked up at her.

Rebecca was staring straight at me with huge eyes, and I could see her quivering slightly in her position on the bed. I glanced over at Al and winced. I knew he was probably as surprised as I was, but I wanted to see the expression on his face.

My mind swam. The idea that my life—_our­ story—_had been bound into a nice tidy book for others to read had infuriated some spark within me. But at the same time, I knew that Rebecca wasn't the one who had written it. She was just sitting there, looking terrified at the thought of having told me what I knew would be the truth. I had already seen her powers at work, I was needing to come to terms with things I had never thought existed very quickly. A book in another world about my life didn't seem as implausible as it would have a week ago.

But then it suddenly dawned on me as I sat there that the girl sitting in front of me would be more important than any stupid book. And she looked like she was holding back tears with all her might.

I exhaled slowly before reaching my arms out and drawing her into a hug.

_Stay calm. It's just a hug. And hey, she's not pushing you away in disgust either. Now all you have to do is make sure you don't focus on how you can feel her boobs pressing against your chest._

…_Aw, crap. _

I breathed slowly, trying to keep my thoughts in control. But I found that the more I tried to control them, the worse it got.

I turned my face sideways, letting her blond waves of hair wrap around me. It smelled wonderful, though I wasn't entirely sure why. I hoped she wouldn't notice me breathing in her scent, pressing my nose against her neck. I was sorry for having turned her hair blond, but I preferred keeping her safe to her dark hair.

"So…you're okay with me knowing about your past so much…?" Rebecca pulled away from me slightly and looked at me with wide eyes.

The truth was, I knew that if someone like Mustang discovered that there was a book written about my life, I knew I would be pissed. But with Rebecca, it was alright. Maybe it was because I somehow knew that she wouldn't use it against me. Maybe it was because of the various thoughts running through my head that distracted me from concentrating fully on this book about my life.

"I'm fine with it," I said softly. Rebecca looked like I had just told her the hotel was made out of chocolate.

The real problem I was worried about was getting her to Headquarters without a fuss. I trusted Al, but I didn't feel comfortable with the thought of leaving Rebecca behind while I went to headquarters. But Al wasn't even allowed in unless it was an emergency.

What I really needed was some sort of military uniform. But even if I had one for myself (which I didn't, because I didn't want to be caught dead wearing _that_) I knew that my size of clothing would never pass off as fitting properly on Rebecca.

A sudden wave of emotion washed over me, and I recognized it as a Rebecca-induced-feeling. I couldn't fight it for long, no matter what I tried. Before I knew what I was doing, I found my arms wrapped back around her waist and my nose buried in her hair.

I took a deep breath and relaxed against her. I knew I wouldn't be able to let go of her until she wanted me to. It wasn't like I was that much against the idea though, or even that I truly wanted to let got of her myself. Hugging Rebecca was nice, and she was the one wishing it.

I had no idea _why_ she was wishing for it, but I wasn't about to protest against the wonderful scent flooding my nostrils.

I flexed my automail hand against her back and winced. It would be so easy to hurt her with automail, to leave dark angry bruises all over her pale skin. Not to mention that I hated being able to only feel half of the hug she was giving me. If I had my arm back—

_If you ever asked her for your bodies back, she'd never be able to love you after that…_

"Nngh…" I jerked and managed to pull away from Rebecca half an inch. But her power still had me gripped in her arms, despite how much I liked it, despite how much I knew I needed to get some fresh air.

"Ed…" Rebecca pulled away from me so that we were looking each other eye to eye. I seized the opportunity and leaped off the bed before she could go pulling me into a hug again. I needed to get away from her and clear my head.

"I, uh… I gotta go," I said quickly, grabbing my red jacket. Rebecca looked like I had slapped her across the face. I didn't think about it much and practically ran for the door, pulling on my jacket as I went.

I didn't know where I was going, I only knew that I _had_ to get away. Even if it was six in the morning. Even if it was pouring outside. Being around Rebecca was driving me insane.

I walked around in circles through the rain, thinking over all that had happened since I'd met Rebecca. The only progress we had managed to make on the ever-continuing research of trying to find the Philosopher's Stone was the fact that we were hanging around a girl who could probably give us our bodies back easily if she chose to.

But even though we hadn't made any progress other than that (and I had no intention of asking Rebecca for our bodies back any time soon), I still didn't feel panicked like I knew I would usually. Hanging around Rebecca had made a strange feeling of calm settle over my vision. It felt like I just _knew_—without a doubt—that everything would turn out all right.

She had enchanted me, I realized after walking in the rain for who knows how long. I never acted like I did around Rebecca with any girl. She was the only one, and I had only just met her. I didn't even treat Winry like I treated Rebecca, and I had known Winry since before I could speak.

I was attracted to Rebecca, I knew that much. I couldn't deny it after the influx of thoughts that had swarmed my brain that morning.

But I knew I couldn't show that I liked her either. If any of my enemies caught on to that, they'd take Rebecca away from me and torture her, possibly even kill her. I knew the homunculi wouldn't hesitate to take her life. I couldn't live with myself if she ended up dying only because I had shown that I liked her so much. The best I could get away with was treating her with a friend, and I knew even that was risky. But I figured I'd end up committing suicide if I had to treat her like she wasn't even my friend. So, "friends" would have to do. And I'd keep her close to make sure I could protect her.

Once I had a plan formulated in my head, I headed back to the military barracks. I had started worrying about Al and Rebecca, considering that I was the only one in the group who actually had claim to being in the military.

And besides, I was soaked and cold. I needed to get back inside so I could get all the water out of my clothes.

I paused outside the door to the room, taking a calming breath before I had to go back in and face Rebecca again. I had to treat her as only a friend, even if those thoughts started running through my head again.

"He hates me, doesn't he?" I could hear Rebecca say through the closed door. "He would have come back sooner if he didn't. It's been two whole hours."

Two hours. No wonder I was soaked.

"Brother doesn't hate you, Rebecca," Al said.

"What makes you say that?" Rebecca pushed, her voice cracking on the words. "He knows what I can do, but I still haven't given you your bodies back. Not to mention that I know all about your past… And he went storming out of here. There's no way he likes me."

I jerked and reached for the doorknob, but then stopped and held myself in position through sheer willpower.

I wanted to slam through the door and tell Rebecca that there was no way in hell I could hate her like she thought I did. I wanted to tell her just how much of an enchantress she was, how it wasn't even possible for me to hate her.

And then I'd lift her into my arms and prove just how much I didn't hate her by kissing her full on the lips. Even though Al was right there and would be watching. Even she would probably be terrified by my actions and say she could never like me that way. At least she would know that I liked her; that I couldn't help it or stop it.

But I knew I couldn't do that, no matter how much I wanted to. I had to train myself to treat Rebecca as only a friend in public, there'd be no way I could pull that off if I started kissing her in private. And what if someone managed to spy on us anyway? The only place that was truly safe was my thoughts, and that was where any romantic thoughts about Rebecca would stay.

I sighed and lightly knocked on the door before turning the knob and walking inside.

"Hi," I said weakly. Al and Rebecca both stared at me silently. "I, uh… I just needed a bit of fresh air…"

"In the rain?" Al questioned. Rebecca bit her lip and looked at the ground.

"Yeah," I said, my voice wavering. "I just… needed to figure out what I was going to do. We… we need to be in Mustang's office in about two hours."

"Okay," Rebecca said softly, still not looking at me. I sighed and turned for the bathroom.

Once I had the door closed safely behind me, I sighed and leaned heavily on the bathroom sink. I glanced up at my reflection in the mirror and winced. I was a mess.

I hadn't bothered pulling my hair back into a braid before leaving the room, so my hair was hanging in wet clumps around my face. I had only worn my tank and pants to bed, and then pulled the red jacket over that before leaving the room. I wasn't even wearing my belt or boots. I hadn't even noticed I had been so caught up in my thoughts. I wondered how I'd be able to survive more than a week acting like I was Rebecca's friend and nothing more.

"Enchantress," I muttered, staring at my reflection.

* * *

There a million other places I would have preferred to be as I stood in front of the solid wooden door. Even being at the Rockbell house with rogue wrenches seemed better than marching in and facing the Colonel Bastard. At least I had Rebecca by my side, which seemed to help a little.

After getting dressed and transmuting the water out of my clothes so I no longer looked like the walking dead, I explained the situation to Rebecca. Once she understood, it was easy enough for her to wish up a military uniform so she could get into Central without any fuss. The best part was that it seemed like we had some sort of invisible bubble around us. Anyone who got close enough would suddenly get a confused expression on their face and walk away in the direction they had just come from.

"Ready?" I asked, glancing over at Rebecca. She was playing with her hands nervously.

"Not really," she said, smiling weakly at me. I couldn't help but grin.

"Me either. Might as well get it over with though, right?"

"Right," she agreed with a half laugh. I nodded and then turned to the door. I turned the handle enough so that I heard the door click as a signal it was open. I then grinned and spun around in a circle, kicking it open the rest of the way. The least I could do was ruin Colonel Bastard's door if I had to come see him.

"Fullmetal," he sighed without even looking up from his newspaper. The bastard wasn't even pretending to do real work, with his feet propped up on his desk. He was only getting away with it because Liza was out doing something or another. Otherwise I knew he would have a ring of bullets around his head.

Flamebutt didn't bother looking up as I walked into the center of the room, but I could feel everyone else look up and then continue staring at me like I was some sort of freak in a circus. I knew it was because of Rebecca. I had never brought a girl to the office before.

They had good reason to be wondering what was going on. Even if she was wearing a military uniform, I knew she still looked like she was around my age. It wasn't unheard of for kids around eighteen years old to join the military, but it was rather rare. I was only special because I wasn't merely joining the military, but the military's most elite program. And I hadn't exactly been in my late teens at the time either.

Finally, Mustang put down his paper and looked at me. I smirked in satisfaction when I saw the brief moment of surprise flash through his eyes, but then he had composed himself again and was his usual stony self.

Ugh, I wanted to punch him in the face. Couldn't he just let me have my one moment?

I briefly toyed with the idea of sweeping Rebecca into a passionate kiss just to knock them all off their feet, but then shooed the thought away as quickly as it came. That would definitely break the "just friends" pact I had made with myself.

"So, you finally got a girlfriend." Mustang smirked and walked around his desk so he was standing in front of me. I took a deep breath and calmed myself before saying the words I knew had to be said, no matter how much I may not want to say them.

"She's not my girlfriend."

The words tasted sour on my tongue.

"If you say so," Mustang shrugged. "At least introduce us if you're going to parade her through here."

I glanced over at Rebecca. We had gone over beforehand what she was supposed to say at this point. I just hoped it was enough to get Mustang. We weren't _lying_ lying to him, just adding in a few tidbits here and there to the real story. And if it wasn't asked, the rule was to not tell him. He'd figure out what was true and what wasn't sooner or later anyway, might as well give him as little information to work with when he did.

At least, until I felt safe in exposing Rebecca to more people than just Al and me.

"Major Jacobson, sir," Rebecca replied easily, flowing into the proper salute I had taught her. It looked like she had been in the military for years. I grinned with pride.

"Jacobson…" Mustang frowned, and I could see Rebecca wince. Was there something she hadn't told me?

"You know her?" I said slowly. Mustang looked between me and Rebecca before finally settling on my face.

"No. Her name just sounded familiar for a second," he said smoothly. I wondered if he was saying he knew nothing because he was lying, or if it was because he had been manipulated by a simple Rebecca-wish. "So what's the damage this time, Fullmetal?"

I sighed heavily. I'd known it had to come sooner or later. At least he hadn't cracked any short jokes.

"Mirror Lake was a flop. There was nothing special in the lake at all. The mayor was lying to the townspeople, as seems to be the running fad with mayors nowadays," I said in a monotone.

The words flowed easily off my tongue in Amestrian. It was almost a relief to know that since Mustang had formed the question in Amestrian, I was allowed to answer back in the same language. That way Rebecca wouldn't know all that had happened in Mirror Lake. It was a bit embarrassing for me to think back to.

"They're going to need half the mansion rebuilt, along with a quarter of their plumbing system," I continued, and Mustang sighed.

"The _plumbing_, Fullmetal?"

"Hey, it was the easiest way to get into the mansion quickly!" I snapped back.

"I don't think I even want to know…" Mustang smirked. I scowled and crossed my arms across my chest. "So what was causing the rumors?"

"The townspeople thought that the water had special healing properties because people that had died years ago were wandering the streets at night," I sighed. "After a bit of digging and setting a trap, we found out that they weren't reincarnated dead people at all, but the mayor's cronies. They had makeup on their faces to make them look similar enough to some of the dead neighbors, and they ran through town quick enough that no one could really tell. Until we unmasked them, at least."

"Seems like an easy enough mystery for you. So, what took you so long to get back here?" Mustang smirked at me. I scowled. I hated to admit it, but he was right. It had nearly been boring it had been so easy. The people of Mirror Lake weren't exactly the brightest bunch.

"Our trains kept getting detoured," I said, glancing over at Rebecca. "We ended up in Bakenhaert. I asked for some backup to take away this girl from Xing who was causing trouble, but some more people might be needed. A lot of the people in the mansion there were dressed in military uniforms, and I doubt that all of them have the most honorable actions to account for."

"I'll see what I can do," Mustang nodded. "So you ended up with absolutely no new leads this time?"

"Not exactly," I said, shifting my weight from one foot to another. "We… we heard a few stories that all sorts of strange occurrences across the country are related to the appearance of what people are calling a god."

_Or goddess,_ I added silently to myself.

"It's rumored that this… supreme being has the power to even bring the dead back to life," I continued, while Mustang stared at me with a strange expression.

"And you, of all people, believe this?"

"I believe any rumor is worth checking out until it's disproven," I said firmly.

"Alright, fine," Mustang sighed, slipping back into the formal ILT. "You and your girlfriend are both obviously anxious to spend the morning out on the town, I won't hold you here."

"She's not my girlfriend," I muttered, though it hardly needed to be said.

"I expect a full written report on both Bakenhaert and Mirror Lake tomorrow," Mustang continued, and I groaned. Reports were so tedious to write. "Then I'll give you your new assignment."

"So what was the point of me coming here today?" I muttered, but I knew Mustang was done with me. He was already heading back to his newspaper, the bastard. "Come on, let's go," I muttered to Rebecca.

I'm not entirely sure what exactly was running through my head at that moment, but I either no longer cared what anybody thought, or just easily slipped back into the habits I had devolved in Bakenhaert. I slipped my hand into Rebecca's and walked out of the office, aware that everyone was staring at us.

"I don't get it," Rebecca muttered as we walked down the hall. "What exactly was the point of me coming here today?"

"Colonel Buttface doesn't like being kept out of the loop," I muttered. "If I hadn't introduced you today, it would have meant a hell of trouble later for not telling him right away."

_Plus, I don't like the thought of you not being at my side. _

I shook my head and kept walking, wondering if holding Rebecca's hand would count as a "just friend" thing or not. I didn't really care though, whether that was for "just friends" or not, I was going to keep doing it. It felt too damn nice to stop.

We were quiet for a while until Rebecca decided to speak up again.

"The plumbing…?"

I froze in my track and stared at her. She was supposed to only speak ILT. She wasn't supposed to understand Amestrain.

"You… You understood that?" I stuttered.

"Sorry," she muttered, looking down at the ground.

I nearly laughed before I kept walking, trying to squeeze her hand and a way that would show her it was all right. I didn't care too much about her knowing about Mirror Lake, I just didn't think that she'd start wishing to understand Amestrain. It looked like I wouldn't be able to hide anything from Rebecca for very long.

Nope, not an ordinary girl at all.

* * *

_**Lesson of the Day**__**—The Story of Mirror Lake**__**: **_

"_The townspeople thought that the water had special healing properties because people that had died years ago were wandering the streets at night," I sighed. "After a bit of digging and setting a trap, we found out that they weren't reincarnated dead people at all, but the mayor's cronies. They had makeup on their faces to make them look similar enough to some of the dead neighbors, and they ran through town quick enough that no one could really tell. Until we unmasked them, at least." _

I'll admit it. This little encounter was heavily inspired by Scooby Doo. (Scooby Dooby Doo, where are youuu??) I was sitting in front of the computer wracking my brain for some sort of plot for Ed to have unmasked, and Scooby Doo popped into my head.

Not the most brilliant of plots to expose, but hey, Mirror Lake isn't really that important anyway, right? ;)

And yes, the plumbing. Oh, that Edo.

* * *

_**Author's Note: **_

Hey, an update! Yeah, I know, right? School and just… life in general have been getting in the way recently, though now it's a four and a half day weekend, so hopefully I'll have time to show some love to all the poor readers I've felt like I've neglected.

Well… four day now. I spent almost all of the half day I had off today to work on finishing up this. And tomorrow I'm gong off to go visit colleges in the morning, so wish me good luck on that!

Anyway, enough about my life, ED POV! –rock on fist pump- Yeah! Which means that for now the format of these chapters is going to be a bit different than what they've been so far. Like how the chapter title is arranged, or the fact that usually there's three pretty equal parts to a chapter, but this one had a little midget section at the beginning.

Though hey, it's Ed's POV, midget sections are to be expected now and then, right?

Ow. No hitting, Ed. XD

* * *

_**Review Replies (super thanks yet again!):**_

**agent000:** Lol, yeah, I was totally prepared for you to be all "Well, you told my Ed about this stuff, so I've been expecting this chapter for a while, but it was good, all the same, hehe." Really cool to have you genuinely surprised, haha.

Heh, yeah, I could definitely understand being ticked at Kimei. The thought of what she was doing ticked me off, but at the same time, when I actually sat down to write, I just started feeling more and more sorry for the poor girl. Her life really sounded sucky, heh. So yes, I ended up making Rebecca help her out. Because I didn't feel right just letting her suffer alone in her misery with no hope the rest of her life.

Plus I like the thought of her getting home, finding her mother well, and realizing that the quiet girl she met had to be the "god," not the obnoxious loud blond boy, lol.

Eh, I've taken a while to update again. I don't remember much about way back to hurricane Ike, but I do know I was pretty ticked at all the rain we were getting, lol. But I did survive, of course, haha.

And now I've finished this chapter, so I'll be talking to you soon, since I don't need to worry about bedtime too much, besides that I have to wake up at least somewhat early to get to go on college visit stuff.

Either way, I'll see you soon enough, lol. ;)

**Morgan Grace Cullen:** Thanks! :D

**Xantanen:** Lol, if I had to write Ed/ROY for so many chapters seriously, I think I'd die of a heart attack. I'm glad that I've managed to keep Ed IC and Ray away from the Mary Sue spectrum too, haha. And I say YAY FOR ED/RAY!! as well, lol.

…And I don't think Ed would let his first son be named anything besides Edward Elric Jr, lol. Unless of course the wife became threatening and said never in her life would she let there be that sort of confusion running through her house over TWO Edwards. XD

Well, I know Ed will end up having a role in the story, I'm just not sure how big of a role it will be yet. So far, it's looking like a "not every chapter" sort of role. Maybe. –shrugs- I'm still working in my head on the outline for that one.

Thanks for reading and reviewing!

**anime.storm:** Lol, glad to hear you're so happy. Here's the next update! :D

**White Alchemist Taya:** Yes, some stories make even me despise Ed/OC. Usually I'm all for it, as long it's not a dude. (Which I've never seen happen anyway…)

And Mustang does seem to remember something about Ray, doesn't he? –smirks-

And yes, I know she shouldn't ignore poor Winry. I plan to have her write a letter soon, it's just been so busy recently that Ray hasn't really had much chance to write. (…Gee, sounds familiar…)

**Demented Cloud of Doom:** XD Lol, okay, an avid Ed/Ray supporter. You're not alone. There's so many time I want to just make those two say "I love you" and kiss, but no, I must continue going slowly… T.T

And do that to poor little Ray? Never, never! Besides, I've got much eviler palns for what happens to her.

-cough cough- Ahem! I mean—!

**Colonel Bastard:** Haha, awesome to hear that someone actually thought along the lines of what I was thinking when I first wrote that section.

And yes, I finished the first twilight book. And the second. And the Third. Aaaand the fourth. And I don't even like the story. My friends convinced me to read the first book, and once I start something, I always end up needing to finish it. So of course, I had to read ALL the twilight books.

I agree though. Not that great.

And yes, it does kill you on the inside slowly. Even if you know there'll be romance at the end of the story, writing all that love building gradually is painful by itself. I couldn't imagine how much more painful it'd be if you knew with certainty that'd there be absolutely NO romance at all.

XD And I saw your fanart. You should give yourself more credit. You actually captured Ray's face very nicely. Some of the little details may need a little tweaking, yes, but hey, the face is exactly how I pictured it! The rest can always be improved with practice if you're serious. ;)

**KatrinaEagle:** Lol, awesome to hear. Here's an update for you!

**Demented Cloud:** Lol, sorry, sorry! I realize that sometimes these chapters take me waaay longer than they should, and that's painful for me too.

But hey, little notes from readers like that is what makes me sigh, get off my lazy butt, and write like the wind! So be proud, you made this chapter come out sooner than it might have otherwise. ;)

**Meggy:** Lol, it's good to be loved. XD Happy late Birthday, here's another update to celebrate. –snickers-

Lol, and it's okay to squeal now and then, especially when it's in the privacy of your own home as you read fanfiction. Worse to squeal like a mouse being stepped on when your friend hands you the next copy of the FMA manga –blushes and hangs head in shame-

Haha, thanks! Yet another vote for Ed/Ray! –fist pump- I like doing it too, I just felt bad for promising to absolutely not have any OC love and then changing my mind on it… -huff- Muses.

Lol, here's the next chapter, hope you enjoy!


	12. Chapter 12

_**12. Enchantress**_

I sighed and thumped my head against the table. I vowed silently to myself that someday I would find a way to pay Al back, if it was the last thing I did. He was a monster.

Once Rebecca and I had gotten back from the Colonel Farts-a-lot, Rebecca had summed up what had gone on, including the part of me needing a stupid report written before I saw Mustang the next day. Alphonse had laughed and told Rebecca the best way for me to get anything done was if I was left to my own devices for a few hours.

So the two of them dragged me off to the library, dumped me there, and went off to lunch. Without me.

The longer I stayed in the library staring at the three pathetic paragraphs I had written, the hungrier I got. Al had taken my wallet with him, but I still had my pocket watch. I was tempted to go out to the first restaurant I saw and use the watch to charge all my food to a bill.

I hated written reports. I really did.

I got up from table with a groan. All my joints felt stiff, especially the automail ones. I figured I needed to oil them soon so they'd move smoothly again, rather than creaking every time I moved.

I left my papers at the desk and started walking around the library, figuring I needed the exercise. Hopefully when I got back to my pen I'd have more of an idea what to write.

I wandered aimlessly among the bookshelves, looking for nothing in particular, and picking up whatever looked interesting. I'd read two lines of an alchemy book I could remember from Teacher's house when a sudden thought struck me. I placed the book back in its place on the shelf and hurried up to the area where I knew the information desk was. I hadn't had much need to use it before; I probably knew the alchemy section better than the librarian.

But for once, it wasn't an alchemy book I was interested in.

"Excuse me," I said quickly when I reached the woman behind the counter. She looked up at me curiously. "Do you have any books with a girl named Rebecca Jacobson in them?"

It seemed like a fair enough question. If there was a book about my life in her world, what was to say there wasn't one about hers in mine?

"I think I've heard of those books, but we wouldn't have them here," the librarian said. "The Life and Times of Rebecca. We only have a few fiction books here, and they're the most well known ones. Those books weren't all that popular."

If it was the same Rebecca I knew, why not? I thought that any book with her in it had to be excellent. Who wouldn't like it?

I thanked the woman and hurried out of the library, leaving behind my three silly paragraphs. They were crap anyway; it was no real loss to have them recycled by one of the librarians.

The air outside had turned brisk compared to the summer air I was used to. It was definitely fall. I pulled my red jacket back on and ran down the street, entering the first bookshop I saw.

It was a small, cozy place. The light of the store was a bit on the dim side, but it created a nice environment. I glanced around the store and hurried to find the shopkeeper.

I found him only a few minutes later, by bumping directly into him. He was an older man, with tufts of gray hair and a stoop to his posture. A pile of books fell from his arms onto the floor from my impact, and I hurried to pick them up.

"I'm looking for a book called 'The Life and Times of Rebecca,'" I said quickly as I stacked the books. "Do you have it?"

"In a hurry, young man?" the shopkeeper laughed, a rather grisly sound.

"It's… It's a very important book," I stammered, hoping I was just imagining the flaming feeling on my cheeks. "I need to find it."

"I keep the science-fiction books back here," the man laughed, motioning for me to follow him. "Follow me, young man." I kept pace behind the man easily, glancing curiously at the books around me.

"Science-fiction?" I asked as he led me to a small corner I the back of the shop.

"I suppose you haven't actually read the book, then," the shopkeeper said, glancing over his shoulder at me. "It's about a girl leading a normal life years into the future. 2000-something, I believe." He then bent down, running his fingers over the spines of the books. "Which one of the series would you like?"

"How many are there?" I asked, my voice feeling hoarse. Could I really find out what it was like to live in Rebecca's time and world 90-something years into the future?

"Five."

"Then I'd like all five," I said easily. The shopkeeper slid out a stack of books and handed them to me with a smile. I thanked him and got him to bill the cost to me at Central, using my watch as identification. I soon found myself back out on the streets of Central, wondering what had led me to buy a stack of novels that might not even be related to the girl I knew.

I sighed and decided that the next order of business would be to find something to eat, considering the upset complaining of my stomach. If I was going to have Al get mad with me for leaving the library without finishing my report, I was at least going to do all I could outside of the library.

I went to a small restaurant that I usually visited when I was in Central. The waiters and waitresses were nice enough; some of them were even willing to talk about alchemy with me from time to time if they had a spare moment. And the cooking was excellent.

"Hey, Edward. Just went book-shopping?" a familiar tan-haired boy grinned at me as I entered the restaurant. He had been the first waiter I made friends with. Something about him reminded me of Al, and we very easily struck up a friendship.

"Hi Tom," I smiled back. "Yeah. I'd kinda like to sit down and read a bit."

"No problem. You know where your table is, right?"

"Yeah. I'll be having the usual."

"Sure thing," Thomas laughed.

I went to a corner of the restaurant where there was a small table with two chairs and a light hanging above it. The table had gotten to be known as "my" table when I was in Central. Usually when I visited, I had books in hand, and the small table had the best lighting of the room.

I settled into the wooden chair and picked up the first of the five books.

After only one chapter, I knew the Rebecca in the book was the same as the Rebecca I knew. Not only was she described the same way, but she also talked and behaved the same way, down to the lip biting and nervous fidgeting. I looked up from the book, and noticed that a plate of spaghetti had been placed in front of me while I had been reading.

I picked up the fork and took a bite. Thankfully the spaghetti hadn't been sitting there too long, it still had a bit of a warm tinge to it rather than being stone cold. I had been known to leave the spaghetti untouched that long before when I had an engrossing book.

I turned back to the book and finished a couple more chapters while eating my lunch.

"Good book?" Thomas asked, and I looked up to see him pull off his apron and sit in the chair across from me.

"Just… interesting," I answered vaguely. The truth was, I knew why the book wasn't so popular. The writer had Rebecca down to a tee and wasn't terribly awful (but not terribly good either) but the story seemed completely unbelievable. I would have never believed that all the things in Rebecca's world could exist if I hadn't met her.

No alchemy, strange flying machines and things called "computers." They seemed like ridiculous rantings of a crazy writer that needed medical help. But it had to be true. I had met Rebecca myself.

"So… word on the street is that you finally got a girlfriend, Ed."

"What?!" I dropped my fork and stared at Thomas bewilderedly.

"Relax, Ed," Thomas laughed, leaning back in his chair. "Melanie was just saying that she thought she saw you carrying a girl bridal-style off the train last night."

"She's not my girlfriend," I mumbled, my eyes flicking back to the book briefly. "Al and I met her a week ago. We're just helping her out."

"Are you friends?"

"Yeah," I said slowly, not liking how the conversation was going. Thomas had a good way of backing me into corners.

"Is she hot?"

"I- W-Why does that matter?" I stammered, feeling my cheeks flame for the second time that day.

"So she's your friend and you think she's hot, but you're not dating," Thomas mused. "So… You'd _like_ to be dating her."

"What?! What the hell makes you say that?" I said, jerking in my seat. How he always managed to figure things like that out, I had no idea. It was just one more quality of Thomas that reminded me of Al.

"Well," Thomas grinned and poked his head under the table for a second before poking back up. "I'd say it's kind of obvious from how happy your little friend is." I let out a stream of curse words directed towards Thomas while crossing my legs quickly.

"So why can't you ask her out?" Thomas said once I had managed to calm down. I groaned and closed my eyes.

"I'm a state alchemist. She could be _killed_ if she dated me," I sighed, closing my book. It was obvious I wouldn't get to read any more of it as long as Thomas was hanging around.

"Or she might say no."

"Yeah— I mean, no! That's not it!" I said quickly, waving my hands back and forth.

"You're just going to be miserable if you keep rejecting your little friend his joy," Thomas grinned.

"LITTLE?!" I screeched, leaping to my feet. Couldn't the guy leave me just a _bit_ of dignity?

"Okay, average-sized friend," Thomas shrugged nonchalantly. "Either way, you're keeping him from his one true happiness, and it's just going to make you miserable in the process."

"It's for the best," I muttered, slouching back into my chair. Deep down, I knew that he was right. I had only been through a few days of taming my thoughts around Rebecca, and already I was depressed.

"If you say so," Thomas shrugged and got up from his chair, tying his apron back on. "It's your life." He then turned and headed back to the kitchen, leaving me with my stack of books and an empty plate of spaghetti.

I couldn't ever ask Rebecca out, not in any way shape or form. That would be too dangerous for her, I couldn't ask her to take that risk. And what if she said no and I couldn't even hang around her as a friend anymore? That'd be even more hard to deal with than not being able to ever take her into my arms and kiss her senseless.

Besides, it was just a bit of stupid attraction; it wasn't like I was madly in_ love_ with her or anything.

I stood up from the table, grabbing my books. Usually I just left a tip and let them bill me, but since I didn't have any money, the tip would have to wait until the next time. Thomas would understand. Besides, he was so annoying, he deserved to wait a week or so on his tip.

I sighed and headed back to the library to work on my report and wait for Rebecca and Al to come find me.

* * *

By the time Rebecca and Al came to me in the library, I had managed to finish my report—crappy as it was—and had settled down to read more of the books about Rebecca. Even though the author wasn't that great, I found myself fascinated by all the different things that I knew had to exist in Rebecca's world.

"What are you reading, Brother?" I heard a voice above me ask innocently. I slammed the book shut and looked up.

"Nothing important," I said quickly. "Just a science fiction novel I picked up." I figured I'd wait until I could talk to Al alone to tell him that Rebecca had a whole series of books written about her life.

"Did you finish your report?" Al asked as I stood up and stretched my arms. It surprised me how sore I had managed to get in only a couple hours.

"Yeah, it's done," I sighed. Sometimes Al fell too easily into the role of a parent between us. It got a bit annoying from time to time.

I glanced over at Rebecca beside Al. She was fidgeting with her hands and looking down at the ground instead of at me. And somehow, just looking at her felt so much different from when I hadn't read the books about her life. Like how when I looked at her, I knew her hair was too short to pull into a ponytail, but her hair had reached down to her waist when she was in her early teen years.

Hair that long sure would be fun to play wit—

I shook my head to clear it and pulled my stack of books off the table.

"Okay, let's go," I said, looking at Al instead of Rebecca. It was easier to just keep talking with the brother I had known for years and who hadn't ever made my mind continuously trip into the gutter. I had thought about things like that with other girls before Rebecca, but hanging around her so long made it so I felt like the only thing my mind was capable of was dirty thoughts.

As long as I didn't focus on her too much, my mind wouldn't fall into the gutter too often, right?

I sighed and tried to relax my shoulders as the three of us walked back out into the brisk fall air. I had managed to get halfway through the first of the Rebecca Chronicles in the time at the library, and I couldn't seem to get the information to go to the back of my head so I could focus on something other than Rebecca.

There was so much in the book that had piqued my curiosity.

"Are lilies of the valley really your favorite flower?" I blurted out before I could help myself. I groaned and closed my eyes.

It annoyed me enough that I couldn't stop myself from asking a question, but it had to be such a stupid question as well. It could be something about how computers really worked, or how they managed to do so much without alchemy. No. It had to be about lilies of the freaking valley.

"Uh… yeah," Rebecca said slowly, looking up at me. "How… How did you know that?" I blanched. I had to think up something, quick.

"I-I just had a gut feeling and I wanted to know if I was right," I said quickly. I knew Al knew me well enough to know better than to fall for an excuse like that, but I was hoping it'd be enough for Rebecca.

"…Okay."

We were all silent again, though I could feel more questions tugging at my tongue, begging to come out and make themselves known. But I wasn't ready to show Rebecca a book about her life either. I wasn't even entirely sure why, I just knew I didn't want to.

The street suddenly seemed so cold, so looming as we all walked in silence. I sighed and pulled the stack of books tightly against my body. Somehow, being close to a stack of books about Rebecca almost managed to make up for not being able to get so close to Rebecca. Slightly. Not that much, but a little, at least.

It felt like an eternity before we managed to get back to the barracks. I was surprised that even Al hadn't tried to say anything during the long walk home, but I didn't think much of it and was simply grateful for the chance to lay on the bed, kick my shoes off, and keep reading more about Rebecca's life.

I didn't know why, but I had an undeniable urge to learn all I could about her. Something about the books pulled me in and kept me there, even though I kept telling myself the writing wasn't all that great. It was more the fact of how the writer had captured Rebecca so perfectly, how I could see her personality shining through the pages. It was like the book could make up for not being able to spend time with the real Rebecca.

I knew I was enchanted, I couldn't deny it.

I just didn't know how to fix it. It wasn't supposed to happen to me. I wasn't supposed to fall head over heels for a girl I was traveling with. I had to keep focused on my goal. There wasn't supposed to be any fun—romance included—until Al and I had gotten our bodies back.

I sighed and flopped belly-first onto the bed. I felt worn out from the day. Waking up at six just to visit Colonel Bastard certainly hadn't done me any favors, and I was beginning to feel it. I was getting sore, and it was barely past noon.

I kicked off my books and prepared to open the book to the page I left off on when a sudden voice interrupted me.

"What's that?"

"Nothing!" I said quickly, slamming the book shut. So much for that plan. I'd have to find something else to do while Rebecca was around.

"Why are you hiding it?" She persisted, craning her neck to try and read the title on the cover. I slammed my hand on top of the book and grinned sheepishly at Rebecca.

"I'm not hiding it!" I said quickly.

"Then why don't you let me read it?" Rebecca grinned, dancing around me. "I like reading books too, you know." I heard Al snicker from his position across the room. I scowled and stuck my tongue out at him. He wasn't the one dealing with a crazy girl trying to read a book about her life story.

I grinned at Rebecca again before sitting directly on top of the stack of books. They swayed slightly under my weight and the cushy surface of the bed, but I put my feet out and steadied myself.

"Come on, let me see," Rebecca whined, leaning in towards me to try and grab the book. I shook my head stubbornly with a grin, enjoying the game. True, losing meant she would discover the story that was in the books, but I didn't care.

And besides, I wasn't going to lose anyway.

"Not gonna let you read them," I said in a singsong voice, getting rewarded with a huff from Rebecca and her grabbing for the books once more. I pushed her away a few inches, still grinning at her. It was strangely fun, though my mind had a bad habit of flicking back to thoughts about the soft skin of her arm.

"Ed, you're not playing fair," Rebecca whined, latching both hands onto my arm. I grinned innocently at her and pushed her backwards gently, only intending to show her I wasn't going down without a fight.

But something went wrong, and instead I ended up losing my balance.

The books shifted under me, making me slip and fall backward. Rebecca, holding onto my arm ended up being dragged down with me into a flurry of pages, bed sheets, and hair. It was a mess. I gasped for a breath before realizing just how exactly we had managed to fall.

…_Oh, crap._

Rebecca had fallen directly on top of me, her chest pressed against mine and her nose buried in my neck. My mind kicked into overdrive, seeming grateful that I was finally managing to act the way nature had intended. Attraction led to babies; that was the way it was supposed to go. Survival of the species and all.

I yelped and jolted up into a sitting position as the thoughts all crowded into my head at once. Rebecca squeaked when she realized what happened and jumped about a foot away from me.

I felt like I had suddenly been stabbed. She didn't want to be close to me? She wanted to get as far away as she could. Not like I blamed her, but it stung, all the same.

My mind didn't even consider the fact that I had been the first one to yelp and change the position.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" Rebecca said in one breath. I pushed myself off the bed and winced. One of the books had dug into my already sore spine and made it feel even worse than before. I glanced down at the books on the bed and sighed. It looked like a mess. Some of them would end up with eternally ruffled pages from the encounter. Not like it mattered too much, I wasn't trying to keep the set in prima condition. I sighed and turned to address Rebecca again.

"It's not your fault," I said, rubbing at my backside. "I grabbed at you when I was unsteady."

"No, but—"

"Ray, just forget about it, okay?" I snapped back.

Besides, it wasn't like it mattered that much when she obviously couldn't stand being so close to me.

"I'm sorry," Rebecca said again, her voice creeping down to a whisper. I sighed and ran a hand through my bangs. It was hard to think clearly when I was not only stung from her jumping away from me, but confused by all the perverted thoughts that had entered my mind simply from her falling on top of me.

Just a simple attraction. That was all. It happened all the time. A guy could feel attracted to nearly any girl out there. It was no big deal.

Right?

"Forget about it," I muttered, looking down at the ground. Anywhere but into those blue eyes. "Read the damn books for all I care."

Then, despite Al saying who knows what to me, I headed for the bathroom and slammed the door behind me.

I slid down against the wall into a crouching position, cradling my head in my hands. What the hell was wrong with me? I had been attracted to girls before, but it had always been easy enough to ignore, to brush off and forget about. Rebecca was throwing everything off. Was it because I was around her all the time?

But how could I _not_ be around her all the time?

I sighed and tugged on my braid.

Enchantress. Enchantress, enchantress, enchantress.

I was going mad. That had to be it. Or maybe Rebecca was making me act so differently because of her powers. She could just keep wishing for me to act a certain way, and I would. She could even get me to stab Al's blood rune right through if she wanted to.

Maybe none of my thoughts were my own. Maybe she had put them there. Maybe that was why I felt like was going insane every time I looked at her.

I sighed and banged my head against the back of the wall. Just thinking "Hey, that girl's pretty" had never been so damn complicated before. Life had never managed to pull my feet out and trip me up over just a couple boobs this badly before. Sure, I had stumbled before, but not like with Rebecca. Just one thought could set me off so badly with her. It was suddenly so different, so new.

Suddenly it all just mattered.

What she thought of me, how she treated me, when she actually talked to me, what she said when she talked to me… I couldn't go for any length of time without wondering what she was thinking.

…Either that, or I was wondering how to properly take off a bra.

Enchantress.

But I knew I wouldn't have her any other way. Despite the fact that I was completely tangled up in confused emotions, I wouldn't trade it for not knowing her.

Why was she so different?

I sighed again and looked up at the light on the ceiling on the bathroom. I didn't know why she was different, I just knew it was the most important thing in the world that she was. Even if it made me acting like a stupid, babbling idiot.

I groaned and curled into the fetal position, not that it helped. Much.

* * *

I walked stiffly into Colonel Bastard's office the next morning. I hadn't managed to get much sleep, especially added to the fact that I had slept on the floor, yet again. I hadn't talked much to Al or Rebecca either, though I had seen Al clutching the first book of the Rebecca Chronicles and flipping through the pages when he thought I was asleep.

"Here's your damned report," I muttered, slamming the paper onto the Colonel's desk irritably. "Now give me my assignment and let me get the hell out of here."

"Not so fast," he smirked, maddeningly. I groaned and drummed my fingers against the desk. "I want to talk to you about this Jacobson girl you brought here yesterday."

"What about her?" I said, wondering what on earth Colonel Jerk would mean by that. If he asked if she was available, I swore to myself that I'd punch him in the face. Even if it got me discharged.

"Fullmetal, while it's nice to finally see you associating with the opposite gender, I don't think this girl is to be trusted," Mustang said, lowering his voice so only I could hear it. Everyone else in the office was a snooping pest, except for Liza.

"What do you mean by that?" I asked, frowning at him. It had to be some sort of trick. He thought I was dating her, so he'd lure me away from her and then he'd pull her in like a fish on a string. There was no way he'd manage to get me away though. If I couldn't stop myself from going mad and hanging around Rebecca, he sure as hell wouldn't be able to. Even if I didn't like her, I might hang around her just to make him mad I wasn't listening to him.

"I spoke to a girl named Rebecca Jacobson on the phone a few days ago," Mustang said, and I frowned. For once, he actually looked genuinely concerned. Maybe he was telling the truth.

But he couldn't be. No.

"There's never been any record of any Rebecca Jacobson, especially in the military records," Roy said harshly. I nearly laughed. Duh, of course there were no records, she was from another world.

"And she knew all sorts of things that normal people shouldn't," Mustang continued in a hushed tone. "She even knew how Hughes died."

Again, made sense. She knew things that other people would probably never be able to find out because of that book in her world. I knew how that worked; I had even done the same with her and read about her life.

"And she kept asking about you and Alphonse," Roy said. "I was concerned, so I asked around town. There's only one Rebecca Jacobson that people have heard of, and she's a character in a cheesy science fiction novel."

I glared at him and leaned on the desk. I knew what book he was talking about, and I knew he was wrong. Rebecca was from another world, plain and simple. That was why she could get anything she wished for. That was why she knew so much about me and Al. That was why I was going insane.

"I don't believe you," I said stubbornly, bracing my feet apart. Even a simple action like changing my physical position made me feel slightly more confident than I already was.

"Then you're dead," Mustang growled, abruptly pushing out of his chair and standing up to glare down at me. I crossed my arms across my chest and glared right back. I wasn't going to let him intimidate me. And I sure wasn't going to let him convince me that Rebecca wasn't really from another world.

"She's stringing you along," Mustang growled, but I held firm. "She's using the name of a fictional character, for pete's sake, Fullmetal! She's just pretending to like you, and then she'll swoop in and take everything you own. And kill you so you won't tell anyone else about her!"

"Dark, aren't we?" I barked in a half-laugh. Mustang's scowled deepened and he slammed his hands on the desk.

"I trust Rebecca," I said firmly before he could slip in anything else. "Neither of us told you the full story when she was here, and I don't intend to. She's not stringing me along. She's not going to murder me."

Shit, I really was losing it.

I nearly lost my cool at the thought, but I stayed firm and stared Mustang in the eye. Even if I was wrong, I was going to tell him he didn't know what the hell he was talking about.

"She asked about you specifically, and now she's hanging around you," Mustang pressed. The thought suddenly occurred to me that he wasn't called the flame alchemist just for his alchemy, but also for the mad look in his eyes as well. It looked like raw fire at its wildest.

"The girl's not to be trusted," he continued, but I held my ground. "You're a State Alchemist, Edward, you can't seriously believe that no one will be out for your blood?"

"I. Trust. Her," I growled through clenched teeth. "I can't explain why, but I do. Even if it is illogical and stupid. Even if it does end up leading to my death. If that's what the price is to know her for even a small amount of time, then so be it."

Yep, I'd lost it. And Mustang seemed to agree.

"Get a grip, Edward!" he yelled, bending down so he was only an inch away from my face. I winced, but composed myself quickly and stared at him coldly. "She's just using you! You're not thinking properly! The Edward I know wouldn't start acting like this over just one girl!"

The Edward I knew wouldn't be acting like that over just one girl either.

I didn't know who he thought he was, but all I felt was raw rage burning in my chest at him outright insulting Rebecca and calling her a liar. I said I trusted her, and it was my life to do with as I pleased. Even if she was who he claimed she was, wasn't it my choice whether or not to act on that?

"Two words," I muttered, keeping eye contact with Mustang.

"Screw. You." I said decisively before storming out of the office. I slammed the door loudly behind me and leaned against the wall with a heavy sigh.

I was insane. Completely and utterly insane. I knew I wasn't acting like myself. I wouldn't normally storm into Mustang's office and defend a girl I had known for only a week. Even if I found her attractive, I knew I would have normally agreed with Mustang—even though I wouldn't like it—and gotten rid of Rebecca as quickly as I could.

I ran my hand through my bangs. Why had I defended her so forcefully, anyway? Was that because Rebecca had wished I would defend her like that, or did I actually want to defend her like that myself?

I thought back to since I had first met Rebecca, and I found myself questioning every emotion, every fleeting thought. If she ever wanted me to think something, I would. If she wanted me to feel something, I would. Maybe it'd disappear once she left. Maybe I'd feel that way forever.

I knew that I thought Rebecca we attractive, but why did I think that way? I certainly couldn't list any reasons other than "Because" or "She's Rebecca." I had only known her a week, one whole freaking week, and I was imagining how to get her into bed.

Did she want me to do that? Was she making me think that way?

But then why had she squeaked and jumped away from me when we actually were close?

Was she a predator? Maybe she was only like a cat and was just playing with her prey before she devoured it whole. First she'd make me like her, and then she'd make me think she didn't like me. Then maybe she'd make me believe she really _did_ like me. And then she might make me think she didn't like me and crush me before she killed me.

It was diabolical.

But even if that was true, it still included the idea that she could get anything in the world to run her way. She would still have powers, and where would she have gotten those powers from?

Maybe she wasn't really human. Maybe she actually was a homunculi—more evil than all the others, enough to lie and put on a show and parade around her catch—and she and Envy had only tricked me in Bakenhaert.

Maybe she really was a goddess. There had always been stories of gods and goddesses coming down from the heavens to woo innocent mortals and play games with the minds of the poor humans.

I growled under my breath and banged my head against the wall once more. Even if any of that was true, even when I considered it a possibility, I couldn't change how I thought of her. I wanted to see the girl naked, even if she killed me two seconds afterwards.

It was a maddening feeling.

I'm not sure how long I stood just outside that office door, debating between whether any of my thoughts or feelings were real or not. I even debated with myself over whether my past was real or not. After all, with powers like hers, Rebecca could easily create an entire past for someone. I wondered if my name really was Edward Elric, or if that boy had never truly existed.

After what must have been hours, I finally decided that the best I could do was accept things the way they were. If Rebecca had created my whole past, then there was nothing I could really do to change it. Anything I did could be reversed easily with a wish anyway. I could have danced through the same thoughts a million times before and never know it.

The best I figured I could do was to act on my wishes and dreams as if they really were my own, since there'd be no way to change anything if it was from Rebecca. The best I could do was live my life as well as I could and enjoy whatever moments I had.

They could be my last, anyway.

With that heavy thought, I trudged back to the barracks, debating whether to protect Rebecca or just do what I really wanted while I still had the chance.

I was so caught up in my thoughts that I didn't notice how worried both Al and Rebecca were upon my arrival. I had stayed outside Mustang's office thinking around in circles for nearly the entire day.

And I hadn't even gotten the assignment I had originally gone there for.

* * *

_**Lesson of the Day**__**—Ed's Amestrian**__**: **_

You may have noticed that while Ed mentions now and then that he's slipping into Amestrain, he doesn't provide lines of direct Amestrain dialogue like Ray would. This is partly because it'd be a bit silly to have pages and pages of dialogue that no one understood, and partly because it's not as big of an issue for Ed as it is for Rebecca, because he can flip easily between ILT and Amestrain.

Language nerd.

Whenever Ed's not around Rebecca, he slips back into Amestrain because he doesn't feel like he needs to make sure she's still in on the information. He'll only mention that he's actually slipping into Amestrain if he's around Ray and does it, because that's when it would actually be of some significance to him and not, "Well, duh, of course I'm speaking in my mother tongue. Jeez."

* * *

_**Author's Note: **_

Okay, here's the next chapter for all of you. ;)

I felt bad because I always put Wish Granted to the side for sometimes a month at a time, when what I'd really like to do is make sure you guys have some regular updates for it. But I' also doing NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) this year, which will mean I won't be working on any fanfiction at all during November. (I know, sad, right?)

So then I looked at my calendar and said "Well, hey, there's still plenty of time to October, I could churn out a few chapters before November if I pushed myself…"

…Which eventually turned into writing out the entire rest of this story before October ends. Crazy.

So… I wrote this chapter in a day, and I'm moving on to the next one. Unfortunately you guys won't get these updates until Friday/Saturday of every week (As long as I do well at keeping up with this, heh) because I want to make sure I have time to edit and blah, blah, blah. But hey, waiting a week is better than waiting a month, right? And at least now you know exactly when you should have the next chapter waiting, and can kill me if it's not there. ;)

Wish me luck, by the time December's here, I'm sure I'll be completely insane! –snickers-

* * *

_**Review Replies (Love, kudos and cookies!):**_

**agent000:** Lol, good things he's a guy. If he was a girl and talking about Ray like that… O.o And yeah, of coooourse Ed's neeeever tried to be a girl. –snickers- How could he ever get put into a situation like that, right? ;)

Haha, and yeah, you do need chapters that are a bit calmer from time to time. Even if the readers want a bunch of action, to have THAT much action every single chapter is a bit overwhelming. Too much intensity.

XD And it's your fault I'm managing to get out these chapters so quickly compared to how long it usually takes. –snickers- So give yourself a pat on the back…?

**UnbornHope:** Lol, yeah, teenage boys especially think like that. Maybe not absolutely ALL the time, but a whole lot more than girls do. It's kinda funny, but also a bitty creepy/scary when you happen to be a girl, lol.

Lol, and thanks. Writing a sexually urged Edward from his point of view is… fun. More like crazy. XD But I've always enjoyed crazy anyway.

And yes, Al is being very sneaky… -snickers-

Lol, thanks for reading and reviewing, here's the next chapter for you.

**vampgirl16:** Lol, thanks. And yeah, it seemd a bit sudden to me too, but hey, that's the way the story ended up writing itself, heh. I've been a bit powerless with the whole thing. –dies- My comfort is that Ed's just thinking along the lines of physical attraction right now rather than serious love, lol.

**Colonel Bastard:** Look at me, compulsively responding! And as for me, I love it when someone reviews my stories over and over. –laughs- Especially when they're fun to read over!

Lol, I have a friend who always winces and says "Why do you always use that word?" whenever I manage to say that so and so cocked her head, or her gun, or her arrow, or whatever. He also reminds me of Ed a lot, so I just HAD to slip that in there, lol. He's most of my inspiration for these Ed chapters, haha.

And yes, I know exactly what you mean about "Are these MY thoughts or HER thoughts??" deal. That gets to come in in later chapters, and Ed gets to be so very confused, lol.

And even if Ray does know what IC for Ed, I'd still feel bad for making him do anything just because I wanted him to, you know? Like… even if he was going to do it anyway, I'd feel bad because I'd made it so he had no choice.

Lol, and your ideas of what it's like to be wish possessed are both right. If you're not really against what she would be wishing, then it'd be the "I have no idea why I would want to go back to our room when I was in the middle of a conversation with someone, but I'll go anyway...why is that again?" But if you REALLY didn't want to do something, like if someone insulted Ed's height and Ray wished that he would not say a word to them, then it'd be the "'Dammit to hell!' and your body's being possessed" type.

Haha, thanks again for reading and reviewing! :D

**13Lulu's:** Lol, yeah, Twilight's annoying. Everybody in that book is sooo… perfect. Like they're all mary-Sues or something, in their crazy Mary-Sue cult. At least Jacob has some proper problems and such and actually seems closer to being a real living person. The 4th book was very bad indeed. I hated how I HAD to read, just because I never like to leave a story unfinished like that. Then someday, years from now, I'l go "Oh yeah, I remember this one story about this vampire kid… I never figured out how it ended though. I need closure, what's that book's name?" and then I'll never remember the title because my mind blocked it out.

Happens to me all the time with fanfiction, because those aren't finished completely most of the time, I don't bother putting a lot on my alert list, and then I forget the name. Grrr.

And yeah, I've noticed the chapter was sudden. Really, it's like my finger are practically possessed when I write these chapters now. I'll know what I'm writing and be going "No, no, no! Too soon!" but I'll still keep writing. –sigh- But now I have to finish this story as well.

**anime.storm:** Lol, well, glad I was able to add to the joy of the day. Sounds like you'll get to have loads of fun at Fanimecon. And hey, this update came a lot sooner than usual, are you still alive? –snickers-

**Demented Cloud:** Lol, sure, there can be eviler things than rape.

And yes, of course Ed's a total perv. He's a teenage boy. Just because he doesn't show sexual feelings doesn't mean he doesn't have any, lol.

Heh, and I tried watching the youtube vid, but it said it was no longer available. -pouts-

Glad you liked it, here's the next chapter! XD

**White Alchemist Taya:** Yep, Ed's going to go insane at this rate. Glad you liked it, thanks for reading and reviewing. :D

**KatrinaEagle:** Lol, thanks. Here you go, Merry Un-Birthday to you!

Fadedphantom: Haha, yeah, I like Ray's POV too, though Ed's is fun to mess around with. But don't worry, she'll come back with her POV soon enough, I wouldn't just keep going with Ed's POV the rest of the story. ;)

Lol, here's the next chapter, bon appétit!


	13. Chapter 13

_**13. Maes Hughes**_

I woke up the next morning extremely tired. I had barely slept at all during the night. Every time I actually managed to doze off, my mind would kick into overdrive—even more than it already was in—and I'd end up having horrifying dreams in which Rebecca was a monster and was trying to eat me, or worse.

It hadn't been the best of nights; that was for sure.

Rebecca didn't look all that much better than me, even though she was the one who actually had the bed and also didn't have to go worrying about whether she was being tricked and deceived or not. What was she worrying through the night over?

I sighed and pushed myself up off the floor and stumbled my way towards the bathroom. I knew I would be a mess and need some cleaning up.

"Brother…" Al called out as soon as my hand touched the doorknob. I sighed and turned around to look at him.

"Yeah?"

"This book…" he started slowly. "Is this what you were worrying about?" I glanced down at his hands. He was holding the first of the Rebecca Chronicles innocently, his finger marking a page towards the end of the book. I sighed and nodded. It wasn't all that I was worrying over, but it had set me off initially.

"I need to clean myself up," I muttered as an excuse and slipped into the bathroom before Al could say anything else.

I was right, I really was a mess. My hair had gotten frazzled through the night and definitely needed a good brushing. The rest of me wasn't doing too well either. My clothes were badly wrinkled, and my automail, though it looked as pristine as ever (thank the heavens for Winry), was creaking and groaning every time I turned it. I really needed to get some oil, or Winry was going to murder me and dance on my grave the next time I saw her.

I sighed and pulled off my shirt, throwing it too the floor. I needed to get nice and clean, that was what I really needed. I hadn't had an actual chance to get clean since before we had arrived at Teacher's house. I was overdue for a hot shower.

I couldn't help but notice my bare torso in the mirror before I started unbuckling my belt. I winced and looked away.

My skin had once been clean and actually nice-looking, but then I had gone and gotten into so much trouble that there was no way I'd ever go back to the way I had looked before. My chest had a scattering of scars all across, like some four year had decided to go nuts and decorate my body with 3-D markings and white lines.

I sighed and ran my hand over the area of my chest where skin met metal. Was it a girl thing to worry over things like whether my skin actually looked nice? I hadn't heard many other guys complain about scars before, in fact, most of them were proud of scars.

The only thing I had to be proud of with any given scar was the fact that I had managed to escape the encounter with my life. But even with that, I always berated myself, thinking that I probably could have escaped with my life and no injuries if I had been just a bit quicker, a bit stronger.

I sighed and tried to forget about all the past battles represented on my skin before stepping into the shower.

When I came out again, I felt a bit better, but not entirely. A shower had helped my physical muscles to relax, but my brain was still racing in full gear. I scowled, frustrated with myself, and started toweling my hair dry.

I rubbed vigorously at the hair, trying to work out all my emotions into the repetitive action of back and forth, back and forth.

When I looked in the mirror, I realized that maybe my hair wasn't the best of things to take out frustration on. I looked like I could be part poodle. I sighed and used my fingers to flatten out the mess. I'd get a comb from my suitcase later to fix it.

I glanced back at my clothes and realized just how awful they looked. There was a bit of dirt dusting my shirt, but luckily it wasn't too noticeable thanks to the black color. What was a pain was if I ever happened to spill powdered sugar on the thing. There was no hiding powdered sugar on black cloth.

I sighed and clapped my hands together, letting familiar power flow out through my fingers. Something about alchemy was even more relaxing than a hot shower was. I grinned and touched my hands to the shirt.

It was easy to take out all the wrinkles and dirt from the shirt. What was better was the fact that just a little accomplishment could make me feel so much better, so much more at ease.

I had no idea what to do about Rebecca, but dammit, I could definitely do alchemy.

I pulled on my clothes and decided to go in search of a red hair tie and comb. Even if it was girly, my hair needed some help. Long hair wasn't something to scoff at; it needed some serious attention and love. I appreciated how my hair usually managed to distract me from problems at least for a few minutes just because I needed to make sure I didn't go out in public looking like a hobo.

I grinned to myself. Everyone had different ways of dealing with stress, mine just happened to be hair, strange as it was.

I ignored the looks Rebecca and Al were giving me as I stepped out of the bathroom and headed directly for my suitcase. I dug under a few pairs of extra shirts and pants—I always seemed to need them sooner or later—and found the comb I need right at the bottom. I sat down on the floor and started pulling it through my hair right then and there, while Rebecca and Al kept looking at me. I continued to ignore them. This was my morning routine; they would just have to wait until I was done with it. Even if the building was burning down.

Well, okay, maybe not if the building was burning down, but only then.

I stood back up with a groan and began braiding my hair. I could feel two pairs of eyes boring into my back, but I ignored them. Right, left, right, left, over and under, over and under.

Eventually I ran out of hair and couldn't keep up the relaxing repetition of braiding. I sighed, wrapped the ponytail holder around the end, and turned around to face the two.

"What?" I said with a scowl, putting my hands on my hips. Rebecca winced, but Al crossed his arms across his chest and loomed over me.

"Don't use that tone of voice on us, we didn't do anything wrong," Al said sternly. I made at face at him, but didn't protest. Deep down, I knew he was right.

"About this book…" Al continued, holding the Rebecca Chronicles book up in the air and shaking it for emphasis.

"Yeah, yeah, I know," I groaned, throwing my hands up in the air. "I was curious, so I asked the librarian about it yesterday. The library didn't have the books, so I went to a bookstore and bought them. I didn't figure you guys would be curious about them so quickly."

"You underestimate the power of books over people besides yourself," Al laughed. "Especially when you won't pull your nose out of it. So, are you going to tell Rebecca just what makes this book so special?"

"Maybe." I wrinkled my nose. "But maybe she already knows." Al turned to look at Rebecca, who looked like she was either genuinely confused or doing a pretty damn good job of acting.

"…I—I have no idea what's in those books," she said with a frown.

"Fine," I sighed when Al turned back to me again. "You know how in my world there's some crazy book about my life?" Rebecca nodded slowly. "Well, _this_—" I grabbed the book from Al and held it out to Rebecca, "—is about _your_ life, okay? I thought there was a chance that maybe someone had written about you if someone else wrote about me, and I was right. That's how I knew your favorite flower is lilies of the valley yesterday. It has all sorts of stupid little facts like that in here."

"M-My life?" Rebecca stammered, grabbing the book from me with trembling hands.

"Yes, your life. Down to the names of your friends."

"Oh." Rebecca flipped the book open to the first page, trembling in place. "N-No wonder you were so upset yesterday. Reading about my life sure has got to suck."

I winced. Why the hell did she have to go using words like suck?

"Why would you say that?" Al jumped in quickly. "I've read even more than Brother, and I thought it was fascinating. You live in an interesting world."

"Yeah, I guess," Rebecca sighed. I rolled my eyes. Did she really think nobody would like her at all, or was this just another mind game? I had no idea what was reality any longer. Anything was up for grabs, and my whole world was falling apart.

"Hey, Al," I said slowly, finally turning to look at him as Rebecca flipped through the pages of the book. "I think I'm going to go out for a walk. I…I kind of want to pay Hughes a visit."

"You want me to come with you?" Al asked softly. I realized that Rebecca had stopped her frantic flipping through the book to look at us. "Or do you want to go alone?"

"Alone," I muttered. Being with people felt like too much to handle. I really needed to find a way to sort out my own problems.

"Alright," Al said hesitantly. "But… If you don't come back before the sun starts setting, I'm coming out to find you."

"Okay," I agreed with a half-bark of a laugh. I turned to go get my coat, but was suddenly interrupted by a high-pitched squeak and a loud thump. I spun around, to see Rebecca with both hands clapped over her mouth and the book on the floor by her feet. I frowned and hurried back to her.

"What?" I said, frowning. She looked like she had just realized she'd fed a dog a whole bar of dark chocolate for dinner.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry," she muttered, closing her eyes and shaking her head from side to side. I frowned. The action reminded me slightly of when she had wished for Al to come back to the room, but Ihad no idea what the hell was going on_. _

"What the hell are you sorry about? I demanded, placing my hands on her shoulders. Rebecca winced and finally opened her eyes to look at me.

"I didn't mean to…"

"Yeah, I've gathered that much, not tell me what the hell it was you accidentally did," I growled. I didn't even care at that point whether she was stringing me along or not, I just wanted her to stop looking like the world had ended.

"Please, would you tell us what happened, Rebecca?" Al chimed in. I didn't bother turning away from Rebecca to look at him.

"I… I didn't mean to… when you were talking about Hughes, I just… I felt bad about… and I… I was thinking that it was so sad he'd never get to see his daughter grow up, and…I think I may have accidentally wished him back to life."

I dropped Rebecca's shoulders, and she winced, looking like she was stopping herself from crying.

Well, at least we'd find out if she really did have enough power to bring the dead back to life.

I couldn't remember the last time any of us had spoken. All of us were tense after Rebecca had told us what she thought she might have done with Hughes. I was tense over the fact that she could actually bring someone back to life, even though I hadn't seen actual proof that it had worked yet, and I had the feeling that Rebecca was tense from me not talking to her, and Al was tense from the vibes passing between me and Rebecca.

I sighed and turned around completely so I could walk the length of the room once more. I was starting to wonder if it was possible to pace enough that you wore a hole right through the floor. I had originally kept track of how many times I had paced the length of the room, but I had lost track of that pretty quickly. I wasn't quite sure what else to do though.

I sighed and stopped directly in the middle of the room and looked up at Rebecca. I could feel Al watching me warily, hoping I wouldn't snap.

Rebecca was curled up with a small notebook and a pen on the bed. She wrote out a sentence and then stopped, chewed on the end of her pen and read back over all she had written.

"Whatcha working on?" I asked slowly, testing out the waters. I wanted to check how Rebecca would respond to me after hours of me ignoring her.

She looked up at me with wide eyes, her pen hovering over the page, poised to write a sentence.

"A…A letter to Winry," she said hesitantly. "I realized that I haven't contacted her for awhile and I don't want her to worry, you know…" she trailed off, not letting her gaze wander away from me, like she was waiting for approval.

A felt a knot of guilt twist in my stomach, Rebecca was writing letters to Winry more often than I did, and she had known her a lot less long than I had. I knew Winry hated that I never called or wrote letters, and then only showed up when I had problems with my automail, but I knew it was for the best.

I sighed and ran a hand through my bangs.

"I should write a letter or something to her too," I said slowly. "I haven't talked to her since the last time I showed up in Reisenburgh…"

"Reisenburgh?" Rebecca repeated, as if she were confused. I looked back to her with a frown. I thought she had known everything about my life.

"Yeah, Reisenburgh," I said. "You know, that's the town where Winry lives. I grew up there. I thought you had been there."

"I…I thought it was called Resembool…" Rebecca said slowly. I couldn't help but smile slightly.

"Oh, right," I said,. "Resembool is the ILT way to say it. People always end up mispronouncing the name and getting it screwed up all over the place if they talk about it and aren't actually from Amestris. You probably leaned one way that it's pronounced, not the actual way. Reisenburgh is its real name, at least to everyone who lives there."

I didn't mention that Resembool was the same screwed-up pronunciation of the town that the homunculi used.

"Oh." Rebecca glanced down at her letter again. "All this time, I thought… Huh."

"If you're really attached to that name, you could put 'Resembool' on the address anyway. The postman will know what town it means."

"No, that's fine," Rebecca said, looking back up at me. "I want to do things the right way, not be stubborn enough to not even be able to change a silly little name for a town."

I grinned and shook my head before turning back to my pacing. As I walked, the slow scratching of a pen filled the room, making me feel even guiltier. "She was writing one _long _letter to Winry. I should write at least _something_.

"Hey, Ray?" I stopped again and looked up. Rebecca bit her lip and scribbled out the rest of the line before looking up at me again. "D'you… do you mind if I add a bit onto the end of your letter?"

Rebecca winced, grabbed the paper and held it against her chest.

"You… could write you own letter and send it in the envelope with mine," she said slowly. "But I'd prefer to keep my letter private." I winced. Stupid me, of course she'd want to keep her letter to a friend private. I nearly hit my own head in frustration.

"Do you have more paper I could use?" I asked nervously. It felt weird to be thinking of writing a letter to Winry. I barely ever did that.

"Yeah, hang on." Rebecca smiled at me, the first real, genuine smile I had seen from her that day. She grabbed her bag from off the floor beside her bed and rummaged around in it before pulling out a pencil from the depths of the bag. She then turned to her own notebook and pulled out an empty page from it. She then held the two objects out to me willingly.

I couldn't help but smile and take them from her. I then glanced around for a seat. There was nothing in the room besides a small wooden chair, and that didn't look particularly appealing.

"You mind if I sit on here?" I asked, pointing at the extra space on the bed. Rebecca grinned and nodded enthusiastically. I didn't even want to think of where my brain could go with the two of us on a bed together from free choice, but I locked that part of my brain away in a dark room and settled down across from Rebecca.

I glanced back down at the paper and pencil.

"Hey… have you got some sort of hard surface to write on?" I asked, looking back up at Rebecca. She nodded and reached back into her bag. She then held out a small book to me with the title "Two Princesses of Bamarre" written on the cover. I smiled slightly and took it from her and started on my own letter to Winry.

I found myself stumbling for words with every sentence. I hadn't written a letter to Winry for years, I wasn't exactly sure how to explain why I had decided to write to her all of a sudden. I eventually decided to not bother with explaining _why_ I had decided to write the letter, but just write the letter instead.

After about a paragraph, I realized why I hadn't bothered much with writing letters. It felt pointless to sit down and tell a paper "Hi, how're you doing? This is what's been happening to me recently, okay?" it seemed a whole lot less stupid to just call up on the phone and have an actual conversation rather than only doing one side of the conversation and not being able to talk out ideas with the person.

After filling both the back and front of the paper with words, I had run out of things to say. I sighed, closed off the letter, and signed my name to the bottom. Rebecca was still writing strong for her letter, and she had already filled more than one page, front and backs.

I sighed and stood up. It wasn't much, but at least I had managed to write _something _for Winry. Hopefully she'd appreciate the effort I had put into the one stupid page and refrain herself from completely killing me with wrenches the next time I showed up at home.

"Are you done?" Rebecca said, glancing up at me. I closed my eyes and nodded, shaking out my hand. It felt sore after writing a good chunk of words pretty solidly. I hadn't spread out the writing of the letter like I had with my written report for Mustang, taking breaks after every half a page.

"I'm almost done too," Rebecca smiled. "Then I'll put both of them in the envelope. Would you mind showing me how to get to the post office?"

I froze. It was one thing if I just mailed the letter _for_ her, but if she wanted me to _show_ her, that would mean I'd have to go out on the town with Rebecca. After we had been awkward and silent to each other for nearly the entire day.

"Uh… sure," I agreed hesitantly. If Rebecca was willing to ask, I'd do it, but I sure hoped the trip didn't end in me snapping at her.

"Thanks," Rebecca grinned at me and turned back to her letter. She wrote out a couple more lines, then finished it off and signed her name at the very bottom of the page. She then reached into her stationary set—I recognized it, I had gotten one just like it for some birthday or other holiday like that—and pulled out an envelope. Both letters went into the envelope and she sealed it. No turning back now, my letter was stuck in there with hers.

"Okay, let's go," Rebecca said, hopping off the bed. She turned back to look at Al. "Are you going to come, Al?"

"No thanks, you two have fun," Al said, seeming amused. Somehow, I had known he would say that, the stinker.

"Okay, let's go then," I sighed, jamming my hands in my pockets. Rebecca nodded and followed after me, clutching the letter in her hands.

We walked down street after street in complete silence. It felt a little uncomfortable, but I didn't want to blurt out something that I would regret later, whether it meant something about lilies of the valley, or if it was something I said in anger.

"So…" Rebecca said after what felt like had been far too long to go without talking. I winced, hoping I wouldn't screw up talking to her.

_Gah. Saying the word screw around Rebecca—even in your mind—is off limits. Got it?_

"You seem like something's bugging you," Rebecca pressed hesitantly. "What's up, Ed?" I grinned and pointed my finger up towards the sky.

"That way, didn't you know?" I said. Rebecca frowned, and I sighed. "You know, that's way's up. You asked me what's up."

"Yeah, I know what you meant," she said with a nervous smile. "It just seems like… If you don't want to talk about anything, that's okay…" I sighed and hung my head. So much for my lame attempt at humor.

"I've just… been thinking a lot over the past few days," I said slowly, looking up at the sky and keeping my hands jammed in my pockets.

"Yeah? What about?"

_Oh, nothing important. Either whether you're an amazing con artist that just wants to take my money and kill me afterwards, or actually I nice girl I could trust to be my friend. And either way, wondering whether I want to treat you ask a friend, or just run my tongue over every inch of your body_

I shivered at the thought, wondering what made me have such sick thoughts. I couldn't look at Rebecca, couldn't make eye contact, especially after thinking something like _that_. I sighed again and shook my head.

"I just… Mustang doesn't think I should trust you," I said hesitantly. If she really was a con artist, this would tip her off to the fact that I was considering she wasn't really who she said she was. "He thinks you just want to kill me for my money and leave me, and… I've just been thinking over what he said."

"Oh."

I sighed as we fell into silence one more. I knew I should say something, but I didn't know what. Still, something—even if I ended up looking stupid from saying it—had to be better than nothing, right?

"Ray, I—"

"Ed—"

We both talked simultaneously, and then stopped. The man leaving the shop right in front of us made the words on my tongue turn to lead. I had a feeling that Rebecca knew the face of the man as well. That face that I never thought I'd see again, that haunted some of my dreams. He was right there, breathing, living.

Hughes.

I stopped and simply stared at him in disbelief. It couldn't be Hughes. I knew that Rebecca had wished for it, but that meant that could really bring someone back from the dead. That couldn't be possible. It couldn't. Maybe it was just Envy, or something like that, or…

No, it was the real Hughes, and I knew it. I felt about ready to pass out on the sidewalk.

"Hughes…" Rebecca whispered beside me. "I—I—I…"

I was too stunned to say anything, even silly stuttering like Rebecca. What was even more astounding was the fact that he was walking towards us, with a package clutched in his hands. Hughes was headed right towards me. I wondered if he would notice me, or if I'd need to be the one to tap him on the shoulder and say hi…

"Edward! Hey! Nice to see you, kid!" I clenched as he walked towards me, extending his arms out in a friendly gesture.

"Hughes?" I said softly, not trusting my tongue completely. His grin widened and he walked straight up to me.

"Hey, how are you and your girlfriend doing today? It's a nice day to go out on the town for a date, isn't it?"

He was talking as if nothing had ever happened, as if I had never seen his casket get lowered into the ground. It was impossible. He couldn't be alive.

"You…You're supposed to be dead," I croaked out, continuing to stare at him. It was as if a day had never passed since his death. As if I had just left on a normal mission and he had been waiting for me in Central the whole time. It felt so… weird.

Hughes sighed and his exuberant posture faded away. He glanced down at the package and back up at me.

"Yeah, I'm supposed to be dead," he said in a serious tone. It was amazing how quickly he could change moods. "I had to do that. It was a cover-up. I was protecting everyone from getting hurt. But now I need to report back all the information I've learned. Don't go around telling everybody I've come back from the dead, okay?"

I simply stared at him with wide eyes.

"You—you…cover-up??"

"Yeah. Luckily not too many people will think of me as 'that one guy who died a while back' when they see me on the street. I just need to manage to get into Central without a fuss."

I gaped at him. How the hell did he expect to pull that one off?

"Hey! Maybe you could help me out with that!" Hughes said suddenly, flipping back into his joyful mood. "You could slip me into that large brother of yours, get him into Roy's office, and there'd be no trouble.

No trouble? He had just come back from the dead and he expected there to be 'no trouble'? I felt ready to fall over backwards.

"Whadda say, Ed? For an old friend like me?" Hughes said, the happiness seeming to roll off him in waves. I groaned and slapped a hand to my forehead.

"Alright, fine, fine," I muttered, wondering if I'd regret it. "I'll help you get into Headquarters, just stop bugging me about it, okay?"

"That's the Ed I know!" Hughes said, slapping me on the back. I coughed and spluttered, feeling a wad of spit roll into my air pipes form the hard impact. I shrugged away from Hughes and glanced over at Rebecca. She looked like she had suddenly run into a god or something, not normal old Hughes.

Even if he was suddenly back from the dead.

"Ah, I see, I see," Hughes grinned, putting a finger to his chin. "I went and interrupted your date with your girlfriend. I'll let you two be and meet up with you later, how's that?"

"She not my girlfriend!" I said quickly. Same old Hughes. It was like he wanted me to get married and start having kids before I was even a legal adult.

"Oh, of course, keeping it a secret," Hughes continued, seemingly oblivious. "I wouldn't blame you for keeping it under tabs. Roy can be a real pest when it comes to dating and relationships. Say no more, I won't say a word!"

"You don't need to keep silent about it, she's not my girlfriend!" I fumed, feeling my cheeks flame. Why did he always have to do this sort of thing with me? Even when he was supposed to have been dead for year, he was _still_ doing it. It just wasn't fair. It was like he'd never give up on the thought of me having a steady girlfriend.

Not as if the thought of Rebecca being my girlfriend had never occurred to me either.

I felt myself blush even more, and I looked down at the ground. I didn't want to have Rebecca see me getting embarrassed by Hughes bringing up the whole boyfriend and girlfriend thing. I sighed and scuffed my foot against the ground. Why did it bug me so much if she knew anyway? I had never gotten embarrassed like that with Winry, why Rebecca? She was just an ordinary girl, wasn't she?

No, she wasn't, I knew that much for certain. No ordinary girl could do what she could, I knew that. I sighed and scowled. Why did my thoughts always end up going this way with Rebecca? It just wasn't fair.

"Why the long face?" Hughes asked, seeming to notice my scowl. I crossed my arms against my chest and wrinkled my nose.

"Because I'm a horse, that's why," I muttered. Hughes didn't seem to hear what I said and instead continued on in his own happy bubble.

"I know what will cheer you up," Hughes grinned, and I knew exactly what was coming next. I sighed heavily and glanced over at Rebecca. "Look at these pictures of Elysia! You can't be sad when you look at a face like that, can you? She's so adorable!"

"Hughes," I sighed, looking up. "Those pictures are three years old. Elysia's grown up a bit since then." I knew it wouldn't matter much, but I figured it'd be worth a try. Hughes didn't notice it at all and just continued on about how cute his daughter was, blah, blah, blah. I tuned him out easily and instead let my eyes flick around the street aimlessly.

Eventually I glanced over at Rebecca, who was watching Hughes and nodding, occasionally taking a picture form his hands rather than just letting them get shoved in her face.

I sighed. Even when I was questioning everything, I still couldn't help but think she was cute when I looked at her. The way she puckered her lips as she stared at the pictures, how her eyes sparkled as she looked at Hughes…

I scowled and shook my head.

Though if Hughes thought we were on a date, maybe I could get him to shut up by simply taking Rebecca into my arms and kissing her on the mouth. And maybe Rebecca wouldn't reject me. If she was only toying with me anyway, I might as well have some fun with the whole arrangement.

I sighed heavily and shook my head. Enchantress.

"And this one, this was taken when she first learned to ride a bike!"

"Hughes…"

"And here she is on her third birthday, blowing out all the candles on her cake!"

"Huuughes."

"And here she is with a friend, trying to win at a race! Isn't it adorable?!"

"Hughes." I stuck my tongue out as he started coddling with the picture. The man was completely insane.

"What?" he said, managing to look up at me rather than continue being completely goo goo over his picture. I sighed and shook my head.

I had missed the guy, I really had. Even if it was slightly annoying, it was good to have him back.

"Look, Ray and I were planning to go out for lunch," I said, slipping my hand into hers. She looked up at me with wide eyes. "We'd like to…you know, have a little alone time. So would you mind meeting us back here at…say, six o'clock?"

"Ah, I gotcha," Hughes said with a wide grin. "Taking the girl out for lunch. I'll let you two lovebirds be."

"Thanks," I grinned. "Seeya later, Hughes." I then started walking down the street, dragging Rebecca along behind me.

"Why'd you say that?" Rebecca asked. I glanced over my shoulder at her and goose bumps ran down my spine at her wide eyes.

_Keep it under control. She's just your friend. You can put up with a little attraction. Don't lose your head. _

"It's the only way to get Hughes off your back in two seconds," I explained, grinning at her as innocently as I could muster. "Otherwise he'll just keep going and going no matter what you say."

"Like a bulldozer?" Rebecca asked with a laugh. My thoughts flicked back to what I had read about her world.

"Nah, more like… what was the name of that thing… the energy bunny?" I said. I couldn't quite put my finger on the name, but I figured I was close enough. No matter what the name, the thing was still weird. Who decided that a bunny with a drum would be something people would like, anyway? Rebecca laughed and nodded in agreement.

"So where are we really going?" Rebecca asked as I turned around another corner.

"The post office, where else?" I shrugged. A sudden thought stuck me, and I scowled. Wicked, wicked, wicked mind.

But hey, maybe it was worth a shot. Live each day to the fullest.

"And… we might as well go to lunch while we're at it. We wouldn't want to run into Hughes long before our imaginary date is supposed to end…"

Rebecca fell silent. I winced and nearly hit myself. Stupid, stupid, stupid! What was I thinking? I glanced back over my shoulder to see how much she was upset with me after I had to go and say something like that.

But to my surprise, her face wasn't contorted in a grimace, but instead she looked surprised. So surprised that her jaw was actually hanging open. I licked my lips and waited for her to say something.

"…Me… you… really?" she finally managed to stutter out. I grinned, sighed, and nodded my head.

"There's… there's this nice place I know of…" I said slowly, my thoughts flicking back to my usual restaurant. Thomas would never let me hear the end of it if I brought a girl there, but at least he'd be smart enough to shut up about it while I was there.

"Um… okay," Rebecca said hesitantly. She then looked at me and smiled so broadly that I thought it had to be able to charcoal something better than even Colonel Bastard. I grinned back at her and squeezed her hand.

I then realized that we had stopped walking long ago. I took a deep breath and went back to going down the street with her following behind.

I had decided that I was insane. I couldn't be anything but if Hughes was walking around the street bragging about Elysia. And if I was insane, I might as well enjoy it. Maybe I was insane and simply having hallucinations, or maybe I was really in a coma in some hospital somewhere.

Either way, I knew that nothing in the world around me had to be real. And if nothing was real, then there were no problems to me being attracted to Rebecca. Maybe she was a goddess and had put me in some sort of crazy fantasy, or maybe everything was the workings of my own crazy mind, but either way, it wasn't real. It couldn't be. It _wouldn't_ be.

So I was going to take Rebecca out to lunch, and I was going to enjoy it.

**_Author's Note: _**

No Lesson of the Day! Noooes! –runs off and cries in corner-

So, there seemed to be a bit of confusion about the whole posting thing. No, I will continue to post THROUGH November, not stop during it. I will stop writing, but that's why I'm writing ahead now so I can still post every week when I'm not writing. I'm actually working on chapter 16 now, so I'm a good chunk ahead of you readers. ;)

Anyway. Today's my birthday! Yay! My parents surprised me and got me this awesome camera, which will probably keep me busy for a looong time, lol. It can hold over a thousand pictures, or about an hour and a half of video! I'm going to have SO much fun with it! And there's other stuff too, but I don't wanna go on forever about it. XD

**_Review Replies (Love, kudos and cookies!):_**

**vampgirl16**: Lo, seeing Ed so confused can be pretty fun. And Al does pick up on things pretty well, especially Ed, who can be rather blatent about things and not realize it. Thanks, I'm definitely sticking with this story. ;) Here's the next chapter!

**AmY-DyLaN-SoHiA-aNiKi**: No, no, dearie. I'll still be updating every week in November, don't fret. I just won't be writing new chapters. Hm, and that link still doesn't work, heh. I don't know what's wrong with it. I even knew that it was about the homunculi, since it let me see the title, but the actual video isn't there. Ah well.

Lol, and I don't think Ed will ever STOP being a perv. He is a teenage boy, after all. Poor Ray has to just deal with that, I guess. XD PS-I knew you were DC even without you being logged into the right account. No confusion, don't worry. At first I thought you had just changed your penname, but I still knew it was you, lol.

**agent000**: Lol, now I'M the one having trouble separating chapters. I nearly posted chapter fifteen instead of this one, lol. That would have been baaad. XD

Yep, gotta love the unwanted trouble. That trouble wouldn't have even been in there at first, lol. It's amazing how much a story can twist and warp from your original concept once you put it into the hands of your muse. XD

Lol, and 10K days are awesome. I need to do another one of those soon. Maybe tonight, if you'd be willing. ;) There's a fun way to spend a birthday, write like a maniac, lol. I've got to at the very LEAST reach chapter eighteen, haha. Then I can pick this up again after November, but keep posting all through November, lol.

**Colonel Bastard**: XD –hands dreamcatcher- Lol, yes, the waiter dude was a perv. Some guys act like that, especially when they hang around other guys, lol. I'm sure he didn't mean to traumatize poor CB.

…Or did he? –snickers-

Lol, and Ed finding out that everything was a fanfic would be hilarious, but sadly, this isn't really going to go there. I already have things planned out along that tangent, lol. But I do like that idea… Maybe I could fit it in somehow. Or do an omake or something. XD

Haha, I never thought that fangirl and Ed would go in the same sentence either! Poor Ed, lol!

**anime.storm**: Lol, yes, poor Ed. And I can understand why Roy wouldn't trust ray, but I still don't like it, lol. Big ol' meanie. –pouts-

**KatrinaEagle**: Lol, thankies for the review, have another update!

**Arden Anam**: Well, good thing that manages to work out, lol. And she couldn't ask about Paninya because Roy didn't really know about her, haha. Don't worry, the FMA world isn't screwed up. ;)

-moves on to next review-

Lol, that would be a good idea. Ray was mostly tired and not thinking too much into the "discover which plot I'm in." thingThanks for reading and reviewing!

**fadedphantom**: Lol, isn't that weird? I'll tell you what's even weirder. I originally got this thought that her real name had to be Lixa, but I brushed it off, saying, "No, no, her name's Riza, dur."

Then I find out that it's really supposed to be Liza anyway. –falls over- Blew my mind too, lol.

Haha, and that would definitely convince Ed that his feelings are his own, but first Ray has to know that he's feeling and doubting all that, lol.

Here's the update, hope you enjoy it!


	14. Chapter 14

_**14. My Battle**_

I entered the shop slowly, pulling Rebecca in behind me. I looked around the shop, wondering how she would respond to the whole ordeal. Was she actually considering this to be a real date, or just two friends going out to lunch? I had no idea. And yet it mattered so much.

"Ed?" Thomas came out from the kitchen and looked at me with wide eyes.

"Hey Tom," I called back. "We're here to have some lunch." Thomas grinned and walked up to me.

"You forgot my tip, you know," he said with a wide smile.

"I know," I sighed. "I didn't have any cash on me yesterday. I'll pay you a double one this time."

"Fair enough," Thomas agreed. He then glanced over at Rebecca. "So… is this girl you were talking about?"

"…Yes…" I said a bit hesitantly. Rebecca looked over at me, obviously surprised that I was talking about her to other people.

"I bet your friend's going to be _really_ happy tonight," Thomas grinned wickedly. I felt fury rise up from my stomach, making me want to scream a stream of curse words at him, but I managed to remember that Rebecca was standing beside me. I swallowed thickly and calmed the curse words.

"Follow me," Thomas said with a wink to Rebecca. She smiled and nodded as he led us to a corner of the restaurant.

I frowned when he sat us down at a table that I had never sat at before. It wasn't my usual seat. The lighting wasn't nearly as good, and rather than the wide space of the usual table I could spread out all my books on, this one looked much smaller and almost… cozy.

Thomas. It was his fault. I would get him back for this someday.

But for the moment, I wanted to try and _not_ look like an idiot in front of Rebecca. I could yell and scream at Thomas another time, when Rebecca wasn't watching my every move.

"Thanks," Rebecca grinned, and Thomas grinned back at her. He then bowed elaborately and walked away, leaving us to sit at the table.

I found myself stumbling. Was I supposed to pull out Rebecca's chair for her? I thought that was the proper etiquette, but it also seemed awkward.

She didn't give me much time to think over the choice though, as she pulled out her own chair and sat down without me doing anything. She grinned up at me as if she didn't have a problem in the world. I sighed and sat down in the seat across from her.

As soon as I sat down, my legs bumped against Rebecca's. I felt my cheeks flame in automatic reaction, and I jerked my knees away from her, avoiding eye contact. After a moment, I glanced up and saw that a light blush was staining Rebecca's cheeks as well.

"Ray—"

"Ed—"

"Sorry," Rebecca grinned, leaning her elbows on the table. "What were you saying?"

"Uh…" I paused, trying to think of good words. "This place has really good food."

"Oh. That's nice," Rebecca said, raising her eyebrows as if my answer had confused her. I snorted, and her eyebrows went even higher.

"What?" she said innocently.

"Your eyebrows," I chuckled. "Most people I know make only one or the other go up when they do that. Both of yours go up."

"Oh, that," Rebecca laughed. "One of my eyebrows is weird. It doesn't go down when I frown either, see?" she frowned at me, and just as she said, one eyebrow went down and not the other. I snickered and clapped a hand to my mouth.

"That's freaky," I managed to get out between laughs. Rebecca laughed and nodded in agreement with me.

"So, have you got any strange quirks like that?" she asked, looking at me amusedly. I paused my laughing for a moment to stop and think over the question. I didn't even know why we were talking about something so… stupid, but I didn't entirely care. It was still fun to learn little things about Rebecca I hadn't gotten from the book.

"I don't think I've got anything like that," I said, still thinking. "At least, I can't think of it on the spot. I might realize it later and end up blurting it out in the middle of something completely unrelated and look like an idiot."

I didn't know what compelled me to keep talking, but I decided not to question it either. It was nice to be able to talk so candidly with someone other than Al or Winry for once. Not to mention that it was Rebecca sitting across from me, of all people. She grinned at my response, and I felt ready to melt into a puddle on the floor.

"I always do things like that," Rebecca laughed along with me. "Sometimes we'll just be in the middle of talking about something completely normal, and I'll smack my forehead and go 'Oh! Mushrooms!'"

"Really?"

"Well… Usually it happens more often with pervy jokes my friends say," Rebecca admitted with a blush. "One time I wrote a scene in a story where there's a hug between the main girl and boy character that like each other, and one of my friends said 'Do you think she can feel him getting hard if she's sitting in his lap like that?'"

I fidgeted under the table. Suddenly, the room didn't feel quite nearly so comfortable. Talking about getting hard when I was around Rebecca, of all people, did not help my brain stop from exploding spontaneously.

"And then I didn't get what she meant until lunch that day," Rebecca said with a laugh. I could feel my eyes widen. _That_ long and she didn't get that joke?

"You might want to work on that," I said. "Being that naïve could get you into trouble."

"Trouble?" Rebecca said, tilting her head to the side.

"Yeah, trouble. Some guy could be hitting on you, and you might not realize anything's up until he knocks you out and drags you to his apartment."

"Would he steal my money—oh…" Rebecca said, her cheeks flushing. She twisted her hands together and bit her lip. "I—I don't think I'd miss out on something like that. I'd know if a guy was trying to hit on me."

"Really?" I said skeptically. At least I could center my thoughts on the seriousness of Rebecca's naivety, rather than how I wanted to be the one taking her to _my_ room, rather than some other sleaze ball.

"Yeah, it's kinda hard to miss out on that," Rebecca said with a small scoff. She had a point, but it was only hard to miss out on if you weren't so naïve. I decided I needed to teach Rebecca a lesson so she'd realize just how naïve she was and would open her eyes to the world around her a bit more.

Even if I went completely insane by doing it. After all, hitting on Rebecca would only make my brain go even more insane, but Rebecca didn't have to know that. It'd be worth it if it meant she'd be less likely to get into trouble. I'd just have to hide from her that hitting on her was the real way I felt about her.

"Okay, if you insist," I said casually. I then winced slightly and let my eyes casually flick to her breasts a couple times, trying to do it as blatantly as possible. I took a deep breath to calm myself and tried to remind my brain that it was just for Rebecca's own good, nothing to get too excited over. For Rebecca's own good. I wasn't going to hit on her just because I liked doing that, no. She didn't notice at all though, just kept looking obliviously around the room, taking in her surroundings.

Damn, she was cute.

I sighed and decided I needed to take a more blatant approach. I cleared my throat, and Rebecca spun her head to look at me.

"You…uh…you look nice," I said nervously. Boy, did I ever feel corny and stupid. It was just a demonstration; I just had to show her how normal, more stupid guys would behave around a pretty girl like her.

"Uh, thanks," she said uncertainly, raising both her eyebrows again. "I just threw on a t-shirt and pants this morning though." She still didn't get it. I sighed and nearly banged my head against the table.

"Yeah, but it looks good on you," I pressed, trying to pitch my voice so that my intentions would sound more obvious. Rebecca still looked confused by the while ordeal.

"It… It would look better it you weren't wearing it though," I continued. Now I was just trying to see how far I'd go before she finally realized what I was saying. Rebecca gave me a "what do you mean by that?" sort of look, but didn't say anything. I had to push it even farther.

"What I mean is… you'd look even better with no clothes on," I said pointedly. I could feel myself blush heavily and my heart went insane. Just talking like this with any girl would make me go crazy, with Rebecca it was sheer madness.

Rebecca's eyes got huge and she looked at me as I f I said I had thrown a bomb into her nightstand drawer that morning. I sighed and tugged on the back of my braid.

"_That's_ what I mean," I said, looking straight at her. "I just wanted to show you what it'd be like if some guy started hitting on your. Do you realize how long it took you before you actually realized where I was going with that? You need to know what guys are thinking right away so you can stop them from going any further right at the beginning."

"How subtle did you start?" Rebecca said nervously.

"Pretty subtle. You didn't even notice when I… flicked my eyes a bit… downwards," I said, looking down at the table instead of at her. "I…it was just a demonstration, alright?"

"O-okay," Rebecca said slowly. "So it could start with a guy just… looking at my boobs?"

"Yeah," I muttered, scratching the back of my head. "Just… I only wanted to make you see that being naïve could get you into trouble, okay?"

"Yeah," Rebecca sighed, looking down at the table. "But I… I don't know how I'm supposed to learn that sort of thing."

_I could teach you so easily._

I shook my head to clear it. Maybe, just _maybe_, I could find some way to teach Rebecca how to recognize when guys got like that, but there was no way I'd go teaching her like _that_.

"Well, the first step is identifying the problem," I said nervously.

"Yeah…"

I paused and looked up at the ceiling in silence. I had no idea what had possessed me to suddenly decide that doing that would be such a great idea. It had suddenly made the room feel so much more awkward.

"Just… what would you like to eat?" I said nervously, forcing myself to look back at Rebecca.

"Um…food?"

I blinked in surprised before I grinned and laughed. I hadn't expected her to make a joke like that. It was the sort of joke I'd make. Rebecca smiled and laughed with me, and I managed to feel less uncomfortable just through the simple sound.

Enchantress.

"Well, what food specifically?" I asked with a grin. Rebecca grinned back at me and picked up the menu.

"Well, you should have said that to begin with," she said, winking at me. I sighed and shook my head. Her eyes flicked down to the menu as she read over it. I didn't need a menu, I knew the food too well. I rested my chin in my hand and waited for her to figure out what food she would have. I was curious to see what she would pick.

I didn't figure I'd ever tell anyone, but the only other person I thought I could enjoy a simple lunch with so much would be Al.

Though I guess I screwed up the "not telling" thing by writing that entire sort of thing in this story.

"Of all the things you could get there, why'd you go for grilled cheese?" I asked as we walked down the street. Rebecca laughed and shrugged.

"I don't know, I just…"

"You could have had anything, and you go for the cheapest meal on the menu?" I continued with a laugh. Rebecca bit her lip and looked at the ground.

"Well… yeah. I guess I'm used to shopping like that."

I gaped at her in astonishment. I would have thought that most people would use an opportunity like eating with a State Alchemist to the best of their advantage and buy the priciest meal they could.

"You don't have to do that, you know," I said, and she looked at me sheepishly. "I can afford whatever you decide to eat. I'm not penny pinching here."

"Well…I…I don't want to be a burden or anything…"

"A burden? Are you kidding me? Why would you think that?" I said, looking at her in disbelief.

"Well, I…I don't want you to go buying a huge fancy lunch for me when I might not be able to get one for your someday," Rebecca continued. I blinked and stared at her. She really wasn't like most of the girls I had met.

"You wouldn't have to repay me," I reassured her. "It was just a little fun. I didn't expect you to pay me back."

"Yeah, but… Equivalent Exchange…"

I laughed. I couldn't help it. Here I had thought _I_ took Equivalent Exchange a little overboard from time to time, but here Rebecca was applying it down to meals? That seemed extreme even to me.

"Who says that science applies to pasta?"

"Well… I… I just feel bad taking things like that…"

I frowned and stopped in my tracks. This was going a little overboard. She just didn't believe me that I was fine with paying for her, fine with spending a little extra if that was what she wanted. The money didn't matter all that much to me anyway.

"Ray, I just did it to have a nice time," I said slowly. "Don't go taking it too seriously. Consider us even for you actually laughing at my lame jokes, okay?"

"Yeah, but…I want to repay you and give you a nice time too," Rebecca pouted, fidgeting with her hands. I froze as the words washed over me. She really was too naïve for her own good. She had no idea how saying things like that would have an effect on guys.

"Look, Ray," I persisted, shoving the thought into the back of my mind. "Every day you wake up, breathing and alive. Every day that's a gift, to be alive and able to experience the world around you. Do you question that or try to figure out ways to repay that?"

Rebecca made a face at me. "You're not God."

"No, I'm not," I grinned back. "That's why the best I can swing is a lunch out on the town. Let me have my fun and go along with it, okay?"

"Okay," Rebecca agreed, though still sounding hesitant. I sighed, but slipped my hand into hers and started walking again.

"Ed?"

"Yeah?" I looked to her at my side. She smiled slightly.

"I…It really was fun. Thank you." I couldn't help but grin back stupidly. Even if the entire world around me was supposed to be fantasy, it still felt so damn _good_ from time to time.

"Yeah," I agreed easily. "Let me buy you something a bit pricier next time, okay?"

"Next time?" Rebecca repeated.

I felt the blood drain from my face. I hadn't even realized that I had said that. I knew I had wanted to do something simple with Rebecca again, but I hadn't planned on voicing that aloud. I nearly kicked myself knowing that I had.

"Well, I didn't mean that…" I started, but was cut off by Rebecca's smile.

"I'm not shooting it down," she said and squeezed my hand. "It sounds fun to me. It's just…" she suddenly frowned and looked down at the sidewalk again, biting her lip. She was nervous again. By what, I didn't know.

"What's wrong?" I said, looking worriedly at Rebecca.

"Well, it's just that…" she started hesitantly and looked up at me. "You haven't stopped calling me Ray since Bakenheart…"

I had noticed that too. I still referred to her as Rebecca in my thoughts, but out loud it was always "Ray this" or "Ray that." I wasn't entirely sure why.

"And then you started holding my hand… and now we're going out to lunch… alone."

Her last word was nearly a whisper, but it stabbed me right in the chest. She did seem scared by how I treated her. And I hadn't realized just how bad I was at controlling myself. I thought I had actually been doing a pretty decent job, but seeing the whole situation from a fresh perspective made me realize otherwise. I wasn't hiding how I liked her very well.

"Oh…" I said slowly, letting go of her hand to tug at my braid. I hadn't been able to hide anything from anyone, not Rebecca, and certainly not myself.

I wasn't just attracted to her. Attracted you could brush off; you could move on and forget about it. No, I was deep in the trench of "crush" territory. I had a crush on Rebecca, and it was showing.

I groaned and closed my eyes.

"Ed?"

_Sorry, Ray, I can't really respond right at the moment, because I realized that all this time I've spent keeping myself from kissing you has been wasted. Because even though I had the best of intentions, I slipped. And I've ended up liking you even more than I first did. If this is your fault with all your wishing, then please tell me right now so I don't have to even attempt figuring all this out on my own._

"I'm fine," I muttered.

"You don't look it."

_Well, that's because I'm lying. I really feel sick to my stomach. I never meant to do this to you. Or to me. _

"I'm fine, I just…" I sighed and looked up at the sky. "It's just that we look like we're dating to anyone else, doesn't it?" I glanced back to Rebecca, and saw that she had started blushing.

"Well, maybe," she admitted hesitantly. I sighed and closed my eyes.

"I'm sorry, Ray," I sighed. "I didn't mean to… Just forget it, okay? I only want to be your friend, that's all. I didn't mean for it to get out of hand."

It left a strange tinge on my tongue to say the words, but I knew it had to be said. And I had to stop walking around holding hands with Rebecca. I sighed again and jammed my hands into my pockets to keep myself from grabbing her hand again.

"Oh."

We walked on in silence, not saying anything else to one another. I wasn't thinking about much of anything, other than I wanted give myself a good kick in the ass. I had been stupid. Stupid and inattentive.

"Ed?"

I glanced over at Rebecca again. She had huge eyes and looked ready to cry. But, as usual, she was keeping them back. I had come to realize that was a normal thing for Rebecca. She had plenty of times where she wanted to cry, but she always controlled herself. Maybe to look stronger. I wasn't sure.

"I…I think you're a great friend," she said, and my legs buckled slightly. "And I wouldn't want something silly to mess that up. And… well, I'm sorry. I've tried my very hardest not to wish any feelings on you, but…it's hard. I don't mean to a lot of the time."

I sighed. So she had been wishing, even if it was an accident. I wasn't going crazy all from my own mind.

But… wait… if she was wishing that, it meant she must have wanted some of that… which meant…

Did she like me too?

I shook my head. Now I was being silly. She could wish for something much simpler than what I was thinking, and it could evolve into bigger things. I sighed and ran a hand through my bangs. Why did this have to be so damn complicated?

"Ed, I—"

"Wait." I held my hand up, stopped walking and listened carefully. There was a small squeak hanging in the air, coming about every other second. I glanced around and leaned my ear more in the direction of Rebecca.

"I think you're squeaking again," I said slowly. She jerked her head as if she hadn't been expecting that to be said, and tested out her breathing. It was definitely her that was doing the squeaking.

"Great," she muttered. "I have medicine, but it's back at the room."

"Let's hurry back then," I said, frowning. "Well… don't hurry too fast. Don't make that squeaking worse.

"Okay." Rebecca nodded somberly.

We walked back down the street, our pace slightly more brisk than it had been before. I didn't want to bring up any more of the topics we had been talking about, for fear it would make Rebecca get even more stressed and therefore squeak even more. Not to mention that I thought the feeling of asthma would be slightly uncomfortable to deal with. I didn't want to make her suffer through that longer than she should.

I knew I could easily sweep her into my arms and carry her back to the barracks the rest of the way so she wouldn't push herself any worse. But I knew that if a few hand holdings would make it seem like we were dating, than carrying her down street after street would definitely set off that vibe.

I had to keep it so that we looked like we were only friends, and that was all.

Enchantress.

I sighed and held a hand against my forehead. If she had been wishing a few things here and there, then how did I know what were my thoughts, and what had really been placed there by Rebecca? She could have made me feel anything, without even meaning to.

"Are we almost there?" Rebecca asked, jolting me out of my thoughts. I glanced around the street to properly take in my surroundings.

"Yeah, we're almost there," I sighed. "We should get there in a minute. Just hang on, okay? No passing out on me."

"Yes, sir," Rebecca said with a laugh. I grinned back at her and slipped back into my thoughts.

I felt so protective of her, like I'd sacrifice myself just to make sure she was safe. I had felt that before with Winry, but not to the extent I did with Rebecca. With Winry, it was simply that I didn't want her to get hurt. With Rebecca, it was not only that, but also the feeling that I would die as well if she happened to die.

I sighed and shook my head, I was insane. Insane, insane, insane. That was the only real explanation. I wouldn't act this way otherwise. One girl wouldn't drive me quite so crazy.

Like I had promised, we arrived at the barracks in about a minute or so. Rebecca hurried over to her bag and dug around in it before pulling out a small L-shaped object. I guessed that it had to be an inhaler, though I didn't know much of what they looked like, I only knew what I did from the book about her life.

She pressed a button on the top of the thing and breathed in deeply. She eventually pulled the thing out of her mouth and looked over at me.

"I think that thing just puffed its last puff," she said with a nervous laugh. "That means I don't have any medicine if I have another attack."

"What happens if you have another attack without medicine?" I asked, somewhat suspicious of her nervous behavior.

"I could pass out," she replied, fidgeting with her hands again. I felt my fists clench at the words.

"Don't go pushing yourself then," I said firmly. "I don't want you to pass out just because you weren't thinking about your asthma, okay?" Rebecca sighed, but nodded in agreement.

"What did I miss?" Al asked from his position on the bed—book clenched between his hands—with an amused tone to his voice.

At fifteen minutes to six, our strange trio was back outside, going to where Rebecca and I had first met up with Hughes. I scowled, wishing that the military had provided him with some sort of assistance to get back to headquarters, since the military was the one who had sent him out on the stupid undercover assignment in the first place.

Or there had never been a stupid undercover assignment and that had been made up when Rebecca wished a dead man back to life.

I glanced over at Rebecca as we walked, and then sighed heavily. For once I was restraining myself not to reach out and grab her hand, as easy as it would be to do so. Even the thought sent wonderful goose bumps down my spine.

Rebecca looked up at me, and wrinkled her eyebrows like she was confused. I sighed and ran my hand through my bangs.

"I'm just tired, that's all," I said before she even had the chance to ask the question I knew was coming. She nodded slowly, seeming unsure of my answer.

"I… I really am sorry," she said slowly, her words soft in the night air. "I didn't mean to do… any of this, really."

"I know," I sighed again.

The three of us kept walking on in relative silence, though the clanking Al made covered up any chance at an awkward silence. I grinned in relief and focused my gaze on the ground beneath my feet.

Al's clanking was so loud, that it wasn't until much too late that I realized I could hear a soft pair of footsteps matching our own. I frowned and held out my hand for the other two to stop.

The footsteps stopped with us, and I narrowed my eyes suspiciously.

Who would bother to follow a suit of armor, and two blond haired teens on a Monday evening? It seemed too coincidental. The only one who would both know me well enough and actually care would be…

Scar. I could remember Mustang telling me before I had left for Mirror Lake that Scar had been sighted in Central again, but being the stupid idiot I was, I hadn't paid him much attention.

"Run," I whispered hoarsely to Rebecca. I knew Al and I could fight, at least enough to hold off Scar long enough that Rebecca would get somewhere, anywhere. It didn't even matter who or what she could be, whether she was a goddess or not, all that mattered was her safety.

"Why?" she whispered back, her voice suddenly terrified. I groaned and turned to grab both her shoulders.

"If you trust me, then do as I say," I said sternly, not liking how my own voice sounded to my own ears. "Run. Don't worry about us. Just _run_."

"Brother, what's going on?" Al asked, glancing around the street. I glanced at him and then back towards Rebecca.

"Do it. Run. Now!"

But it was too late.

"Wha—?"

She was cut off by a loud bang. I reacted instinctively and threw my arms around Rebecca to protect her from the blast.

The wall only a few feet down exploded, sending out rocks and other debris towards us. I was close enough that I could feel Rebecca's heart thudding against my chest as I dragged her to the ground. I could hear the clank of Al being thrown to the ground beside us.

My cheek scraped against the sidewalk as we landed, and I winced. At least it was me getting beat up instead of Rebecca, who was being protected from the fall by my body.

"Ed?" she said the word softly, and I opened my eyes to look at her. I hadn't even realized I had closed them while I had been falling. Rebecca was looking at me with a worried expression on her face.

"I'm okay," I muttered, letting go of her and pulling myself into a sitting position. "You idiot. I told you to _run_."

"Sorry," she whispered, standing up and rubbing at her right arm.

"Ow," Rebecca whimpered, looking back up at me. She looked at me, her chin wobbling. I could tell she was trying to hold back tears again, but it wasn't working as well as it usually did.

I winced as I realized I hadn't been able to protect her as well as I had thought. She had a handful of cuts across her cheeks from debris that had been flying toward us. I hated to think what would have happened if I hadn't been able to protect her at least a little bit.

I groaned as I pushed myself to my feet, wiping off dust on my pants quickly. A useless action, really, but I knew I was a mess, and it comforted me to be able to clean up any part of myself.

"Ed—" Rebecca started, but she didn't have a chance to finish.

"Fullmetal," a familiar voice said. I winced and turned around to face Scar.

"Nice to see you too," I scowled at him. "Glad to see you can still give such nice, warm welcomes to old friends." Scar didn't answer, but instead cracked his knuckles and glared at me.

Man, what a creep.

I glanced over at Rebecca worriedly. Al and I with our best moves had trouble enough getting away from Scar twice in our lives. How was I going to manage protecting her _and_ fighting for my life?

"Brother—" Al started, and trailed off, his gaze on Rebecca as well. I knew he was thinking along the same lines I was. We couldn't let her die. I wouldn't let her be _murdered_ by an Ishvalan creep.

But he wasn't after her. He would only go after Rebecca if she tried to defend me. I was the only one he wanted.

I had to protect Rebecca and Al. Either one of their lives was more important to me individually than my own, to have both of them together was even more valuable. I needed to get both of them out of there, and quickly.

I didn't care if I died in exchange for their safety.

"Al, get Rebecca out of here," I snapped quickly.

"But Brother—!"

"I'll be right here," I lied through clenched teeth. "You can come back and help me, but get her out of here."

"I don't want to go!" Rebecca protested. "I can help!"

Scar cracked his knuckles, looking unsure at the situation in front of him.

"Al," I said firmly. He nodded and then grabbed Rebecca around the waist and threw her over his shoulder.

"Sorry," I heard him tell her as he ran away. "It's for your own good."

"Ed!" Rebecca screamed as she was carried into the distance. I winced and closed my eyes. "You're the idiot, you idiot! EDWARD!!"

It was for her own good, Al was absolutely right. I couldn't have Rebecca die just because I couldn't protect her, I knew that. It would hang over my head the rest of my life, haunting my nights and all my dreams. At least if I died protecting her, I wouldn't have to worry about that. I sighed and rolled my hands into fists, staring steadily at Scar.

"Whenever you're ready," I muttered. "Let's get this over with."

"Noble, Fullmetal," Scar said, taking two steps towards me. "But nothing is noble enough to save all your sins."

"Yeah, I know," I grinned back at him. I then took both my hands and slammed them together, letting blue light flood the street that was now completely covered in debris. At least when they found my body among huge pieces of a building and my brain exploded from the inside out, they'd know exactly who had killed me. Not to mention there would also be two witnesses who had seen Scar with me last before I had been found dead.

I slapped my left hand to my automail, making it into the blade I knew Winry hated so much. I wasn't even messing that badly with her automail, just the outside cover. I didn't understand the fuss.

I grimaced and lunged towards Scar. He danced in a half circle and avoided my blade, taking the chance to swing his hand towards me, palm extended outwards.

I leaped backwards, flipping over my own feet in the process. I knew I was going to die, but dammit, that didn't mean I'd go to it willingly.

_I'll be right here._

I sighed. I needed to get Scar away from the spot in the street. If Al came back, I didn't want him to be able to jump right into the fray I had tried to protect him from. I needed to keep the battle going long enough to get Scar away from Al and Rebecca, but then I needed to get away or end it quickly, whichever worked easier.

I glanced at Scar, and then slowly started to back up without even looking over my shoulder. I was able to tell where rocks and such would be, my eyes were better off staying trained on the man that could blow things up.

He started to follow me, and my footsteps quickened a bit more. He quickened his pace as well, and I sped up a bit more. Him, then me, the dance continued until I finally turned all the way around and went out in a full out sprint.

I could hear him running after me, and I made sure to keep checking over my shoulder to see how close he was getting. I didn't want him to get close enough to be able to make me… well, go boom… before I had gotten far enough away that Al wouldn't see us right away when he came back.

It was my battle, and my battle alone.

I licked my lips and sped myself a little bit more. I was running faster than I thought was even humanly possible. Thank whatever heavens there were for adrenaline.

I felt a quiver beneath my feet, and next thing I knew, the ground rippled and threw me into the air.

I landed against the ground stiffly, and I felt the wound above my right eye open up again. It never seemed to have enough time to actually heal before I got into another fight and opened it up again.

I jumped to my feet, determined not to let Scar take me while I was down. Blood trickled around my eye, clogging my vision and making it harder to see. But I had dealt with that plenty of times before; I knew I could handle it.

"Brother?!"

I felt like the world had suddenly crashed around me. I flicked my eyes away from Scar for half a second to see Al—with Rebecca still on his shoulder—standing at the corner I had just turned trying to make sure Scar was away from the original site.

I had led Scar right to Rebecca and Al rather than away from them.

My heart sank at the same second Rebecca seemed to realize what was going on. She struggled against Al's arm, twisting her head to try and look at what was going on.

"Let me go!" she said, banging on Al with her fists. "I can help! Put me down!"

"Get her out of here!" I yelled, lunging towards Scar a second time with my automail arm. Before I had even reached him, I heard a loud clank. I could see out of the corner of my eye that Rebecca had escaped from Al and was now running toward me—as I ran towards Scar—while Al chased after her.

I had to make a decision, quick. Keep going towards Scar and hit him as hard as I could in hopes it would take care of him, or switch directions and try to protect Rebecca.

I chose Rebecca.

I spun around mid-stride and ran towards her, trying to figure out how the hell I would be able to protect her, while also wanting to slap her for being a stupid idiot. I had tried to make sure she was safe, and she had thrown that away to try and "help" me.

Scar used my distraction to blow something else up, as usual. It was like he knew nothing else as an attack.

The ground rippled again and threw both me and Rebecca into the air. I expected her to scream, but to my surprise, she didn't. I could see her eyes widen in the spilt second before the world started spinning around me, but other than that, she didn't seem to react to being thrown high in the air.

Not like other girls I had met at all.

I landed on the ground with a groan, knowing that if I lived to tell the story of how I had escaped from Scar, I would be really sore in the morning. I expected to have bruises all over my body.

Then Rebecca let out the scream I had been anticipating.

"My arm!" she cried it out, and I looked up to see her clutching at her right arm. I could tell from the awkward angle that it was probably broken from the impact of the fall.

And for once, Rebecca couldn't hold back her tears at all.

I felt like I had been ripped in half as soon as I saw the wet drops rolling down her face as she clutched at her arm and rocked back and forth. Sobs bubbled out between her lips uncontrollably. She didn't seem to notice any more of the world around her for at least a full minute as she rocked back and forth, caught up in her own little world of pain.

Then she looked up at me.

I nearly wanted to cry with her. I could see how much pain she was in just from the expression on her face. I had broken bones before, and I knew just how painful it could be. Every time I had broken a bone—or even scraped a knee—came flooding back into my head at once as if in reaction to her pain. I felt like I was dying. All I knew was the burning, the throbbing, the pain. The only way I could make it better would be to hold her in my arms and make sure she knew it'd be okay.

But Scar wouldn't give me much chance to get distracted by Rebecca. He started walking towards me, arm extended towards my head.

"Brother!"

"Ed—" Rebecca moaned it, staring at me. I flicked my eyes between her and Scar, before stumbling to my feet and heading towards her. The second fall hadn't helped me much.

"Ed…" Rebecca said, her voice trailing off. I could tell that Scar was going towards me, but I didn't care. Rebecca had been thrown to the complete opposite side of the street from me. It seemed like she was an eternity away. I didn't even know where Al was, I had a feeling that he had been crushed under a boulder from the loud clang I had heard while in the air. At least he was alive; I knew that from the way he kept screaming at me.

I tripped over a rock and slid across the ground, feeling my nose scrape against the pavement. I quickly pushed myself into a sitting position, but it wasn't quick enough. Scar was looming above me.

"No—!"

I couldn't tell whether the voice was Rebecca or Al. All I could concentrate on was the hand coming closer and closer to me.

I didn't mind dying. I had been okay with dying when Al and Rebecca hadn't been around. But I knew Rebecca was in so much pain, and someone needed to help her. I couldn't die before I had been able to comfort her. I couldn't leave the world with my last image of her being one of her crying. Especially since we had only gotten into the situation in the first place because I was an idiot.

"Rebecca…" I choked out.

Suddenly a warm body was in front of me, pressing against me, breathing as if there was no air left in the world.

"I… wish…" Ray panted, clutching at her side with her left arm.

Her asthma. I could feel my eyes widen as I stared at Ray in front of me. She didn't have her medicine, and now she had pushed herself too far, much too far. I hadn't ever heard her breathing get that bad.

"I… wish… Scar… would… dis… appear…" she managed to choke out.

To my astonishment, Scar vanished right in front of my very eyes. Ray turned around and flashed me a quick smile. Even in the heat of the moment, I nearly melted into a puddle at the sight. Instead I settled for grabbing onto her shoulders tightly.

"Well… that… was… an… adventure…" she said weakly. I could tell from her expression that she was still in pain. She let her right arm hang at her side limply. She was close enough that I could see the trails of tears still coated on her face, along with all the dirt and grime from the fight.

I wanted to badly to reach out, to wipe those tears away from her face and tell her it would be okay. All I wanted to do was pull her into my arms and never let go. I never wanted to see her in so much danger again.

"Ray," I breathed, and then she collapsed in my arms.

_**Lesson of the Day—Amestrian Laws of Dating:**_

First date: Go out to a nice dinner. And informal lunch shouldn't count, since two coworkers can do that easily. The more a girl likes a guy, the more money her dinner should cost. She should order accordingly. If she likes him more after the dinner than before, she should make sure to order a pricey dessert so the man knows he made headway.

Second date: Go to a theater to see an evening play. The more well known the play is, the more the man likes the girl. He should make sure to get the right tickets to send off the right impression.

Third date: The girl cooks dinner for the man. By this point, it would be considered appropriate to kiss her goodnight at the end of the evening.

So, Ed and Ray haven't "officially" been on a date yet. XD

_**Author's Note: **_

-sobs- Yes, I know this is a couple days late. I acually had it written out by Friday, but it still needed to be edited and all that good stuff. And I procrastinated and put it off. So it didn't get posted. –sobs again- I'm sorry!!

But, hey, look on the bright side. The next chapter's already written, so now you don't have to wait a full week before you get to read the next part, right? So you don't have to leave off on that painful note for as long as if I hadn't been lazy and posted this when I was supposed to. So maybe it's a good thing I was lazy, riiight?

No?

Anyway, we are now in the NaNoWriMo season, and things are going… well, I suppose. –dies- I have to somehow find time to edit these chapters between schoolwork and NaNo now, so it's a tad difficult, but hey, I'm surviving so far!

Ed: –cough-even if the chapters are late-cough-

Shush! x.x Stop making so much sense and acting like my conscience.

Ed: But that's what I'm good for!

-sigh- I'm going to cut this off before we get into a full-out argument and take up page after page with useless jabber.

Ed: Useless?! I'm not useless! That's Mustang's job!

_**Review Replies (Love!):**_

Like I said, my schedule is packed. So, while I still love all your reviews to bits, I'm going to stop replying to reviews for a while. Sorry. I might pick it up again at a later point. -cries again-


	15. Chapter 15

_**15. The Hospital**_

I woke up in a world filled with white. I could tell in an instant that it was the hospital. The smell gave it away, and the white everywhere didn't help much.

I groaned and sat up. I was going to have a sore neck all day just from falling asleep in the wrong position. I sighed and then glanced down at the unconscious figure in the bed in front of me. A sore neck was worth it for Ray.

After she had collapsed, I had momentarily panicked before realizing that my best chance would be Al. I was hesitant to leave Ray, but I got up to find Al with both his legs completely crushed by a rock that had been a product of Scar's dangerous alchemy. That was easy enough to fix, though. One quick transmutation later, and we were rushing Ray to Central hospital.

I had first tried to carry her myself, but then Al had scolded me and ended up carrying her the rest of the way to the hospital because I had been weakened from the fight with Scar.

I wanted to point out that I hadn't broken any bones, unlike Ray. All I had gotten were cuts and scrapes. While they were painful, I could deal with minor injuries. It was thanks to Ray that I was alive at all.

I sighed and looked up at the ceiling. At least we had managed to get her there in time. The doctors had shooed us away from her when we arrived, which meant a few nerve-wracking hours of pacing. When we were finally let in to see Ray, she was unconscious, but at least breathing.

She was covered in bandages. Her broken arm had been set and put into a cast, which lay limply at her side, and smaller bandages covered all the little cuts and scrapes across her body. Not to mention that quite a few bruises had blossomed underneath the bandages while we had both been asleep.

I felt a pang of guilt. I had gone and led Scar closer to Ray and Al rather than farther away. I had led the monster right up to the people I was trying to keep him away from.

And then Ray was so stubborn about "helping" me. If only Al had been able to get her away. Then nothing would have—

_Well… that… was… an… adventure…_

I frowned as the last sentence Ray had said before falling unconscious flicked across my mind. Why had she said that? And she had even been grinned while she said it. It was almost as if she were happy that we had landed in such a big pile of trouble and lived to tell the tale. But why would she like that?

Would she wish for something as dangerous as an "adventure"? The thought seemed idiotic. If she had wished for something like that…

"Brother? Is she awake yet?" Al asked, stepping into the room. I sighed and turned to look at him.

"Nope. And I fell asleep watching her. And you left, you sneak," I grinned at him. Al glanced around the room, fiddling with his fingers. I couldn't read the expressions on his face, but I could still read _him_. And I knew I had hit the nail right on the head.

"What's been up with you recently, anyway, Al?" I continued, and Al started flicking his head to look around the room even faster. "You've been running off all the time to leave me and Ray alone. What's going on?"

"Uh… well… have I?" Al said, putting his hand on top of the doorknob.

"Yes."

"Really… That's… uh…"

"Don't even try to lie, you're lame at it," I said, crossing my arms across my chest. Al fidgeted and then looked at me. "Tell me what's really been going on, you little sneak."

"I thought that… well, that you two needed to… uh… _bond_ a little."

"What's that supposed to mean?" I asked, frowning.

"Well… Oh, come on, Brother, it's obvious."

"What do you mean?" I asked, this time it being my turn to sound confused, except the only difference was that I really _was_ confused, not trying to fake it.

"Brother, ever since we left Teacher's house, you started… Every time you look at her…" Al sounded like he was struggling with how exactly to phrase this in a way I would understand. As if a seven year old had asked him how babies are made. I frowned and stood up.

"What are you talking about?"

"Well…" Al shook his head and looked at me. "Brother, it's obvious. You _like_ her. I can see it every time you look at her."

I felt blood creep into my cheeks as I stared up at Al. He had figured that out? _That_ was why he had been sneaking off, why he had been nearly giggling every time Ray and I were talking? Just because he knew I liked her?

"You were… trying to give me a chance to make a move on her?" I asked disbelievingly. Al laughed and shook his head.

"No! …Well, I guess you could put it like that…" he said slowly. "I just wanted you to realize that you like her without me telling you. I figured you'd be more likely to realize that if I weren't always distracting you."

He had been right about that. Al had been there all the time, but also not really. My thoughts always boiled down to me and Ray, Ray and me. I had been stuck thinking about how I felt about her rather than trying to distract myself from the truth. We had always been the ones able to talk together, when usually I had done all my talking with Al. I had practically started missing Al when he was right there.

"I…" I sighed and glanced over at Ray on the bed. "I did realize I like her. I… I _do_ like her, I really do. I just… that won't work."

"Why not?" Al said, grabbing the chair next to me and sitting down in it. I worried for a split second whether or not the chair would hold his weight. Luckily, it did.

"Well… we're just… we're moving around all the time," I said slowly, turning to face Al. "And it's dangerous on the road too, not the place for a girl like her."

"Brother."

"What?"

Your reasons for not having a girlfriend…"

"Yeah?" I said, tugging on my braid nervously and glancing back at Ray for a brief second.

"That's the same reasons you give for why we can't have a kitten."

I could feel even more blood rush to my face as I turned back to look at Al. I smiled nervously, and he shook his head.

"Tell the truth, Brother. It'll help _you_ to get it out. Why can't you and Rebecca be together?"

Now this was more like it. This was the Al I had missed, the nagging, the questions that always got me right in my gut. Knowing that he wouldn't manage to let me squirm out of any questions without telling to truth to both him and myself.

…Why exactly had I missed that, again?

I thought over his question, still pulling on my braid. When I tried to think of why Ray and I couldn't be together, the same kitten excuses jumped into my head, but Al was right. It went deeper than that. I knew I was scared of something, I could feel it. But what exactly was I scared of?

"I guess…" I sighed and looked back at Al. "Because… I don't like to think of how she'd react to me. If she'd reject me. And… she's turned out to be so damn important to me. When she passed out yesterday… I felt like I was going to die. It was awful."

"What's so bad about caring for someone so much?"

"Because," I started, but the word died on my tongue. He had a point, as usual. What exactly was so bad about being so attached to someone?

"Because… she'll…" I sighed and threw my hands in the air. "I don't know Al, I give up. She just keeps driving me crazy, and I don't know how I could stop that. All I want to do is protect her one minute, and the next minute I want to be the very thing I want to protect her from…"

"What do you mean by that?"

"I mean…" I fidgeted, cursing the blush that wanted to set up a permanent residence in my cheek. "I mean that I keep having… thoughts about Ray. Pervy thoughts. More than I've ever had with any other girl."

"And what's so wrong with that?" Al said, folding his arms over the back of the chair. "It's normal to have pervy thoughts."

"Not like this," I whispered, glancing at Ray again. "She's driving me _insane_."

"No one ever said being a little crazy is a bad thing. But you never really answered the first question I asked," Al said, and I groaned. What was with him, anyway? "What's so bad about caring for someone so much?"

I licked my lips and thought over the question. It was harder to answer than I thought it would be. One would think that caring for people would be good, not bad, considering that social relationships were one of the things that separated humans from animals.

But then my mind flicked back to everything I had lost.

Mom. Hughes. Nina. Everyone I gotten close to had died.

"I'll lose her," I whispered, not looking up at Al.

"Why?"

"Because I lose _everything_," I muttered, folding my arms across the back of the chair and burying my head in it.

"You haven't lost me, have you?" Al asked. I scowled and looked back up at him.

"Nearly. You practically died."

"_Practically_ and _nearly_ are not the same as _did_," he pointed out, and I scowled. "You nearly lost me, but you didn't. We survived the storm, and we're still together. And what about Winry? Have you lost her too?" I made a face at Al.

"No…"

"So… the people you're the closest to seem to be the ones who survive because you'll fight to the death to protect them. So what's so bad about letting Rebecca into that circle?"

"I… I just can't, Al, okay?" I muttered and looked up at the ceiling.

"Why not?"

"I can't!" I yelled, jumping to my feet and glaring at him. "I just… can't! Shut up! I can't do it!"

"So are you giving up?" Al said, standing up and looking down on me. "Because that's what it sounds like to me. It sounds like the great Fullmetal Alchemist has decided to turn tail and give up at the first sign of trouble. I never thought you the type to do that."

"I never thought I'd be the type to fall for a girl so badly," I muttered, looking down at the floor.

"So just because you happen to have feelings and hormones like anyone else, you're going to give up? When you haven't given up before?"

"I can't do it."

"You mean you can't _try_."

I looked up at Al, crossed between being pissed at him and wanting to break down like a child and cry and throw my fists against the floor.

"No. I can't try. Not with _her_," I said, gesturing towards Ray on the bed. "If I try with other things and mess up, the one who's hurt is me. If I try with _her_ and mess up, _she'll _be the one who suffers."

"Why do you condemn something before you even give it a proper chance?" Al said exasperatedly. It sounded like he would have sighed if there were air from a set of lungs he could actually exhale.

"I'm not condemning something before I give it a chance," I muttered, folding my arms across my chest.

"Yes, you are. You're saying you're going to mess up and hurt Rebecca. What if you _don't_ mess up and hurt her? How are you going to know any of these predictions you've made will come true if you don't just _try_ with her? Why can't you give it a chance?"

"Oh, yeah, then we can walk around holding hands and calling each other 'sweetie pie' all the time," I scowled. "And then when Scar comes after me again, Ray can go ahead and break even _more_ bones, because of course my girlfriend wouldn't go running off when we got into trouble!"

"Maybe she'd be more willing to listen to you during times like that if she didn't feel like she had to impress you. Maybe if she thought she had won enough approval to make you like her, she would actually do what you say."

"Yeah, sure, she's just trying to win my oh-so mighty approval," I scoffed.

"She is."

"No, she's not!" I snapped at Al, turning my head to glare at him. "She's a headstrong, confident young woman who could do anything she wants in the world! She doesn't need my approval!"

"Maybe she doesn't need it, but she does _want _it," Al said. I opened my mouth to protest, but he interrupted before I had a chance to say anything. "I could tell you liked her, and I was right about that, wasn't I? Rebecca is trying desperately to get assurance of the fact that you _do_ like her. I can see it. Every time she does something, she looks to you to see how you react. She doesn't want to do things that she thinks will put her friendship with you at risk."

I hesitated, glancing back to Ray on the hospital bed. She couldn't want _my_ approval. That thought was even more insane than I had turned in the last few days.

"You're just hurting yourself like this, Brother. And her," Al said softly, putting a hand on my shoulder. I sighed and looked up at him.

"I can't do this," I whispered. "I can't tell her… I like her like that. You can't expect me to do that."

"But I do. You've done much harder things in your lifetime."

"No, I haven't," I laughed bitterly, looking back to Ray. "I'd go through automail surgery again if it meant skipping over this whole mess. It'd be easier. And less painful."

"It's only this painful because you're making it that way," Al pressed. "You're trying to ignore feelings that can't be ignored. You're lying to yourself, saying it will be for the better, when all it does is give you an excuse to run."

I hesitated, thinking over his words.

"Running will only hurt both of you," Al continued, and I sighed. "When you keep feelings inside of you, it gnaws away at you and hurts. You need to both clear the air between you and make sure you both understand everything between you two."

"And what, then I ask her out and we go to a fancy dinner?" I muttered, wrinkling my nose. Casual lunch had been fine with Ray. It had been _fun_. A formal dinner would be too… stiff.

"Maybe. If you guys want to."

"And what, I just say, 'Oh, yeah, Al, sorry about the whole body thing. We're going to have to put that on hold because I suddenly found a girlfriend'?"

"Who said you can't have a relationship and study at the same time?" Al laughed. "Plenty of people do that all the time. It's called balancing a work life and a personal life." I scowled and stuck out my tongue.

"Still… she shouldn't want me for a boyfriend."

"I believe that's her decision to make, not yours. You only decide if you want her to be your girlfriend or not." I sighed and looked up at Al.

"Why do you have to be so damn smart and counter everything I say?" I muttered. Al laughed.

"Because otherwise you'd wallow in self pity all the time and never get anything done."

"I guess," I sighed and looked back to Ray.

"So are you going to talk with her as soon as she wakes up?"

"Oh, that's nice," I laughed, shrugging Al's hand off my shoulder. "Hey, you finally woke up from this major fight in which you broke your arm and ended up collapsing from an asthma attack. Glad to see you survived. Now, tell me, would you be willing to be my girlfriend?"

"If you phrased that a little better, she'd probably find that very romantic," Al snickered. "Tell her that seeing her collapse made you realize you can't live without the sun in your life or something. Girls eat that sort of stuff up."

"No way am I saying that," I said, even though I knew that there was a grain of truth to it. Seeing her collapse _had_ made me realize I couldn't live without her.

Which was why I was even firmer in the idea that we shouldn't be together. I needed to get out of there. I needed to get a little fresh air. And I certainly couldn't tell her all Al wanted me to tell her.

"I'm hungry," I sighed, looking over at Al. "You know, she's slept for a while. I'm sure it'll be okay if I leave for just a bit to get myself some food…"

"Ooh, no you don't," Al said, crossing his arms across his chest. "You stay here and wait for her to get up. I'll go get you some food."

"Traitor."

"There's no pulling the curtain over my eyes, you should know that by now," Al said and walked out of the room.

I flopped into the chair again and waited for the Sleeping Beauty to wake up. If she could wake up without a kiss, that would mean I wasn't Prince Charming, right? I sighed and closed my eyes. Some part of me knew it wasn't true, that Prince Charming would be whomever _Ray_ decided it was, but I wanted to hope that it wouldn't be me.

Even though another part of me was screaming out, "I'm Prince Charming! Here I am! Please let my kiss be the one!"

But I decided to ignore that pesky voice.

* * *

I sat there for a few hours, with nothing better to do else than watch Ray sleep. It surprised me how easily I could do that. Every time she would move in her sleep, I jump to my feet, hoping she would wake up, or wanting to make sure she wasn't hurt in her sleep from all the various wounds on her body.

I was jumping to my feet about every five minutes.

I sighed and looked at the bruises on Ray's face. It looked awful. It looked almost as if she had been involved in some sort of bombing rather than simply thrown into the air. I figured I looked just as bad from the way my body was aching, but I hadn't wanted to look in a mirror and see just how bad I looked.

I made a face and then reached out my hand to trail my fingers along the bed sheets of Ray's bed. I wasn't even touching _her_, just the cloth a few inches away from her, and my arms still had goose bumps running down them.

I had lost it.

The whole situation had set me into a tailspin. Al knew I liked Ray, _I_ knew I liked her, and now I had to find a way to tell her how I felt. At least, that was what Al thought. I had never thought that I would get so completely… smashed over a girl so quickly.

I barely knew her, I had learned more about her from reading a book about her life than from the time I had spent with her.

Well, okay, that wasn't true. I had learned more stupid pointless facts from a book than I had from talking with Ray. But then again, who slips that many stupid pointless facts into their conversation anyway?

"I can't do this," I muttered, trailing my fingers along the bed sheets until I was only a centimeter away from Ray's hand. "I can't even believe that this is happening, much less reveal all that to you."

I sighed and looked away from her hand to her face. "I can't let you see that part of me. It's too raw, too easy to hurt. I don't want you to see that side of me. I only want you to see the good sides. When I'm brave, and I actually know what to do, that's what I want you to see."

"I…I'm scarred, Ray," I whispered. "And not just physically. Every one of these scars on my skin represents a scar on my mind. It's something I can't get over anymore, that's hurt me deeply and will always be there. You don't deserve someone who's not so… brain damaged."

I paused, thinking over the words that I had started to just let slip out without even thinking about them.

"I…" I bit my lip and thought about what else had to do with why I couldn't tell Ray I liked her. "I'm scared… of getting hurt again. I don't like to show that to anyone… not even myself, but I am. I've already been hurt enough as it is, I'm scared that getting hurt by you would be the scar that would end up killing me. I guess… I think that it's better to hurt myself, to not let myself think of you… like _that_ rather than to take a chance and let you be the one who's doing the hurting."

"Then I'm not in control," I whispered, slipping my hand into hers and squeezing it. "You'd hold my life in your hands. You could hurt me a little, or a lot. Or even not at all. But I wouldn't have any say in what you do as soon as I gave you that decision."

"I hate not being in control of my own life," I muttered, looking down at the ground. "I…I want to be in charge of my own future. Not have it decided for me by other people."

I sighed and looked back up at Ray.

But then again, was I giving up my say in my life by letting Ray know I liked her? I had the choice of giving her that decision or not. So really, by deciding whether or not to tell her, I was still deciding my own life. I was just deciding if I trusted her enough to let her have a say in it or not.

I could still _choose_ to pick myself up and brush myself off rather than curl into a ball and die if she rejected me. I was giving her one choice; I still had millions. It wasn't much of a sacrifice, but it was still a valuable gift.

"Aw, man, Ray," I sighed, pulling my hand back out of her grasp.

I froze as I realized that I wasn't just calling her Ray aloud anymore. I had used to always refer to her as Rebecca in my thoughts, but somehow, sometime after arriving at the hospital, the Rebecca in my thoughts had changed to Ray as well.

I looked up at Ray bewilderedly, and then noticed that some hair had fallen into her face while she had shifted in her sleep. I sighed, then reached up and gently pushed it away from her face, tucking it behind one ear. I hesitated before pulling my hand away, rubbing the lock of hair between my fingers.

"What the hell is this?" I muttered, feeling a lump form in my throat. "This isn't… just attraction. It's… It's… I don't know. It's terrifying."

I grunted with a wince and then pulled away from Ray. I hadn't felt so confused about myself since I had hit the teen years and started going through puberty. Ray was making me question everything, changing everything in my world.

"You're so…" I started, looking back at her. I found myself struggling to find a word to describe her before I finally settled on, "…special."

It just about summed all I knew about Ray, how I saw her. Special. Enchantress. She was simply… different, and that was the best way to put it.

"Mmmmm…Ed?"

It was a groggy groan. I snapped my head up to look at Ray, and finally saw a pair of shining turquoise eyes looking back at me. I couldn't help but grin stupidly.

The first thing she had said when she had woken up was _my_ name. Albeit, it had been a little hard to understand, and I expected her to say something when she saw me waiting for her to wake up in her hospital room, but it was still my name. She hadn't said "Mmmmm…hospital?" I had been the first thing she had seen when she woke up.

"Hey," I said, leaning forward. She blinked owlishly and glanced around the room briefly before settling her gaze back on me. She grinned at me, then winced and held a hand up to a cut on her cheek.

"You're a mess," she whispered, looking up at me.

"You're not much better," I grinned at her. I paused and then took in the seriousness of what I had said with a frown. "You broke your arm." She winced and looked down at the cast on her right arm.

"Yeah, that hurt," she said, turning back to me. "But hey, now at least I can say I've actually broken a bone. I hadn't ever broken one before this."

"Really?"

"Yeah…" she trailed off, her eyes flicking downwards. She was silent for a minute before she finally said, "Hey, Ed?"

"Yeah?"

"Next time you pull me to the ground in an attempt to save me, could you try to remember not to hold me quite so tightly?" she asked with a weak smile. I winced, remembering back to when I had wrapped her in a hug to protect her from flying debris. I nodded in agreement, though I didn't know how well I'd manage to keep the promise in the heat of a moment like Scar appearing out of nowhere.

We both fell silent, but not into the same awkward silence we'd had a few times before. I was worried about Ray, and if talking was painful for her or not. She just seemed lost in thought.

It was sort of nice, in a different way than talking was, I realized. It was like we were both supporting each other, but it was a silent, mutual support. Words were nice, but somehow, they didn't feel necessary. Just hanging out together in silence still managed to communicate something between the two of us.

"…Ed, are you okay?" Ray asked after a minute. I jolted in my chair and snapped out of my thoughts to pay attention to Ray. I grinned weakly at her.

"I'm fine."

"Liar."

I froze, staring at her. Man, was she good. How did she even know something was bugging me from only two words? I winced and tugged on my braid.

"Well… I… It's just been a hard day, I guess," I sighed after a minute. "When you passed out… I thought that…" I trailed off, not liking the memory of seeing Ray collapse into my arms while I wondered if she would actually manage to live through another day or not.

"I'm sorry," Ray whispered. "But I couldn't just let him get you like that. I… I had to do _something_."

"Couldn't you have wished from where you were?" I snapped at her, and she winced, shrinking back from me. "Do wishes lose effectiveness if you're not right there? You knew your inhaler had run out, and I _told_ you not to push it! Do you realize what a hell of a night I've been through? Why did you run towards me? Why didn't you stay where you were?"

"I'm sorry," Ray said again, quivering in place. "I didn't mean to… It was… instinctive. I just had to stop him from getting you, and the first way I thought of was to put myself between him and you."

"So if it weren't for the fact that you can do wishes, you and I _both _would have been killed," I sighed exasperatedly. "You're an idiot, Ray."

"You weren't being too smart yourself," she scowled, sticking her tongue out at me. "You were coming towards _me_ when he was trying to kill you. He wasn't even worried about me. You should have thought of yourself first."

"But…" I sighed and trailed off, rubbing at my forehead with one hand.

_But if I defended myself and then you ended up dying, I'd never be able to live with myself. Protecting you is the same as protecting me. _

"I guess… we were both a bit idiotic," I sighed after a minute. "We were both too worried about each other when we should have both been taking care of ourselves. Maybe if we had started out doing that, we wouldn't have gotten to… that point."

"Maybe if you hadn't told Al to take me away like a five year old, it wouldn't have gotten to that point either," Ray scowled, sticking her tongue out at me. I winced and pulled my hand away from my head to look at her.

"So, what? You want to just hang around me whenever there's a fight so that you can get into trouble even more quickly?"

"No," Ray said firmly. "I want you to stop viewing me as the damsel in distress and treat me more like you treat Al. I can help you. I want you to stop acting like I'm just a stupid girl who screams and waits for someone to rescue her."

I let out a half-laugh at the statement. I had known that Ray wasn't anything like that sort of girl, but I hadn't thought of it put like that. She was feistier than a lot of girls. She behaved more like Winry than Rosé.

But even so, I still wanted to be able to protect her. I didn't know how I'd be able to manage if she ended up in the hospital again.

"Okay, let's make a compromise then," I said, and Ray raised both her eyebrows curiously. "If we get into something dangerous again like we did with Scar," I said slowly, my heart skipping a couple beats when I said 'we.'

"I'll let you stay and fight," I said, and her eyes widened in surprise. "But then you've got to promise me that when I do tell you to get out of there, you do it."

Ray frowned, seeming to consider the idea.

"Alright," she said slowly. "But then you've got to promise me something. You'll only tell me to run away if you're sure that you'll be able to get out and join me later."

"Ray…"

"That's the only way I'll agree to it," she said narrowing her eyes as she looked at me. The look on her face reminded me of Winry. I shook my head and held my hands up in defeat.

"Fine, you win," I said with a grin. She grinned back at me, then winced and held her hand up to her cut cheek again. She then held out her hand, and I rolled my eyes and shook it.

But I knew that if I told her to run and didn't escape with my life, she wouldn't be able to punish me for not doing as she said. All I wanted was a way to be sure that Ray would be safe even if I wouldn't be able to live to tell the tale.

"Well, I guess I got the adventure I always wanted," Ray said with a chuckle. I snapped out of my thoughts to stare at her.

_Well… that… was… an… adventure…_

"You didn't," I growled, standing up. Ray looked at me as if I had suddenly sprouted horns.

"Didn't what?"

"An '_adventure_'?!" I snapped at her, and she flinched backwards into her pillow. "You think this is all just a bit of fun? 'Oh, Edward, I would so enjoy going out on an _adventure_ where our lives would be threatened! That sounds like so much fun!'"

"What?" Rebecca said. She sounded like I had hurt her, but I brushed the thought off and kept going forward.

"Did you _wish_ for an '_adventure_'?" I growled, leaning in so that my face was about three inches away from her. "Did you wish for… this?" I motioned to her broken arm lying on the bed beside her. Ray stared at me with wide eyes and shook her head.

"No!"

I didn't hear it. All I could feel was the blood pounding in my ears, the way I felt like I wanted to become a pile of mud on the floor.

"Dammit, Ray!" I said, turning around and kicking at the chair. "How could you be stupid enough to wish for that? How could you wish to put me through hell like this?" I spun back around and stared at her. Just like with Al, I felt torn between screaming and cursing at her, or breaking down and slumping to the floor in tears.

I settled for a cross between the two.

I flopped into the chair, hanging my head so I wouldn't have to look at Ray. I didn't want to see the expression on her face. She really was toying with me, with my emotions. She was just having a bit of fun, and then she'd leave me alone in my pain. Or kill me.

"Ed?"

"What?" I muttered, scowling under the curtain of blond hair I was hiding behind.

"I…I didn't mean to hurt you. I didn't wish for adventure like this. The only thing I ever _really _wished for was to be able to meet you."

I sighed and looked back up at her. She looked as if I had stabbed her in the gut. I frowned and scooted my chair so that I was right beside her bed.

"Why the hell are you doing this to me, Ray" I muttered. She frowned and tilted her head to one side.

"Doing what?"

"Driving me insane," I whispered with a bitter chuckle. "I keep thinking that I shouldn't be near you, that you're only pulling me along and are going to hurt me in the end, but I can't ever convince myself it's true. I can't help but… _ like_ you," I sighed.

"…What do you mean?"

"I mean…" I paused and frowned. What exactly _did _I mean? I wasn't even entirely sure myself. But I knew that if I were going to do Al's suggestion of blurting out all my feelings to Ray, it'd be the perfect time for it.

_I mean that I want to treat you like more than just a friend. I want to be able to introduce you to people as my girlfriend, take you out on dates, show you the world and be able to hold your hand in public without worrying. I want to take you into my arms and kiss you without thinking about you rejecting me or if it would lead to your death. I want to be the most important guy in your life, because right now, I think you're the most important girl in mine. _

I winced and tugged on my braid. No way could I say all that to her. She'd flip. Besides, there was no way Ray would like me as anything more than a friend. No way. She wasn't the type of girl who'd fall for a guy like me. I sighed and looked back up at her.

"I mean… Somehow you've managed to become one of my… best friends," I said slowly, settling on that instead of a long romantic speech. "I don't know how, but you did. I like hanging out with you, I want to…"

Ray's face lit up before I could even finish the sentence.

"Really?"

"Uh… yeah," I said nervously, suddenly feeling as if the room had gotten at least ten degrees hotter. No, make that twenty degrees.

"You're my friend too, Ed. I feel like I can trust you with anything. You're… one of my best friends too," she said with a nervous smile directed at me. I couldn't stop myself from grinning stupidly at her.

Friends. We were friends. No, she had said I was her _best_ friend. I didn't think it was exactly what Al had been expecting me to blurt out to her when he told me I needed to tell her how I felt, but at least it was something.

And maybe, just maybe, as long as we were friends, then someday it could move into more romantic territory.

But at that moment, even just being best friends had exhausted me. Just blurting out that one simple feeling had drained my energy. I could remember Ray talking to me, but I barely absorbed any of what she said and just ended up falling asleep in the chair.

* * *

_**Lesson of the Day—Weirdness:**_

Yes, Al knew Ed had a crush on Ray the whole time –snickers- That's why he's been a bit out of the picture and sneaking off all the time.

Okay, maybe that doesn't count as a lesson.

Your real lesson is that you dear authoress is weird. And she usually winds up writing these chapters while high of the praises of her closest friends. XD Therefore, yes, Ed and Al may seem a bit OOC compared to the normal standard for FMA fanfics, but hey, it's because AdventureAddict is bolder than usual because she has people telling her how awesome her chapters and writing are when she sits down to write these.

…And I just proved how weird I am by writing all that in third person. Lesson over, class dismissed.

* * *

_**Author's Note: **_

I'm a horrible person, I know! –cries- Yes, it's a whole week late, I'm sorry. I completely forgot about it last week, so absorbed in NaNo am I. It's ended upbeing written as a fanfiction that will be changed into an actual novel later. It's just easier for me to write the characters when I refer to them as "Edward" or "Winry" haha. Maybe I'll post some of that after NaNo's over to show you guys what's been delaying my posting. ;)

Fun chapter, no? Gotta love Al chewing Ed out. –snickers- But that's all I have to say for now.

* * *

_**Review Replies…**_Thanks all for all the wonderful comments, haha. I just don't have it in me to reply individually to every single one anymore, so I'm just going to hit on some points that stuck out to me among them.

I'm glad people are continuing to like Ed/Ray when there's SO many EdxOC fics out there that horribly suck. Like I've said before, I wasn't intending for that to happen, in fact, I wasn't originally planning on this turn to the story at all. Always fun to see characters start breathing and thinking for themselves.

Yes, the chapters are way pervier now that we've switched to Ed's POV. And had him start talking to Thomas. It kills me in both horror and laughter to keep writing all that in there, but really, guys ARE pretty pervy. Especially Ed, lol. That's just how he is.

Sorry about the cliffie, again. I feel horrible about putting this off without realizing. –sweatdrops-

No, the next chapter is not complete yet, unlike all the other chapters I've posted before this. I've either got to pause on NaNo for a day or two… or three… to write out about 6,000 words for this story, or just wait until November's over, heh. I'm still debating on that one.

And yeah, I've had the idea a few times that Ray wishes her dreams don't affect Ed and Al, but that's also a toughie, because then a wish I have planned wouldn't affect Ed, and I don't know if he'd be too happy about that one, lol.

Thanks again for all the love, cookies and reviews, again! XD Here's the update, please don't kill me!

Phew. I think I managed to say all I wanted to. Yay.


	16. Chapter 16

**_16. Hoops_**

The hospital was driving me nuts. I couldn't deny it any more. I couldn't handle staying so long in one place. Hell, I had practically lived in the same chair for a few days. I needed to get out and stretch some muscles.

I sighed and stood up and then looked down at Ray with a groan. I needed to get _out_, but every time I looked at her and her broken arm and bruised body, I felt the familiar feeling of guilt make my stomach slide to the floor.

I hadn't led Scar away from her and Al. I was just grateful that Al hadn't ended up any worse for wear besides the leg I'd needed to repair. But how could I make it up to Ray?

"Brother, maybe you should go get some rest," Al said from behind me. I sighed and then turned around to look at him.

"Maybe…"

"Don't worry about Rebecca," he added. "I'll watch over her while you're gone. I scowled at Al. I knew he was saying it with one of those stupid know-it-all smirks he had, even if I couldn't physically see the smirk.

Leaving Ray wasn't the biggest issue, though some part of me refused to admit it was influencing my decision as much as I had a suspicion it was. Ray had too much control over my life recently, it seemed, and whether she was aware of it or not, I wanted to snag some control back for myself.

But more of the reason I didn't want to go off and take a nap was the fact that even just the word "nap" sounded weak in my head. Like something preschoolers do, not something the amazing Fullmetal Alchemist would do. At least, unless I got so tired I conked out in the middle of whatever I was doing. Still, I didn't want Ray to see the side of me that would go off and take _naps_. Al had seen me do that more times than I could count, so it didn't matter much if I did that around him, but Ray was different. For starters, I didn't have the same mother and father as her.

"Look, Al—" I started with a sigh. I was cut off by a moan from Ray. I snapped my head around to look at her.

Her eyes were still closed, so I assumed she still had to be asleep, but she had a small grin on her face. She sighed and readjusted herself in her sleep. I chuckled before turning back to Al. It seemed like she was having nice dreams.

"Al, I just—"

"Ed…"

I jerked and turned around to look at Ray again, while Al chuckled. I made a mental note to myself to murder him later. Ray's eyes were still closed, so she had to still be asleep, but what the hell was she dreaming about? I frowned and watched her.

"Ed," she sighed again, her grin widening in her sleep. I felt blood rush to my face. Maybe it would be a good idea to get out of there, just in case she started saying something more than my name, whatever she was dreaming about. Then again, I didn't want to leave Al alone with her if she was going to start saying embarrassing things about me.

My thoughts stopped cold as I felt my legs start twitching and walking forward as if they were the ones in charge of the body and not me. I panicked and tried to struggle against my legs, but I kept walking forward.

"Brother, what are you doing?"

"I don't know, I can't control it!" I hissed back at him. Al took a step forward, obviously anxious. I looked back at Ray, who was still grinning in her sleep. Then it dawned on me.

"She's wishing in her sleep, Al," I groaned. "She's having some sort of dream and doesn't even realize she's wishing." I stopped. I was standing right in front of Ray's bed. She kept grinning, like she was some sort of psycho witch.

Then again, maybe "psycho witch" actually was a proper description for her…

And then my hand got a life of its own just like my legs had done. I reached forward, unable to stop myself, and placed my left hand on Ray's cheek.

I spluttered and tried to pull away, but it was no use. I could feel blood pounding in my ears. If Ray was dreaming and that, was she wishing feelings on me too? Did she actually _want_ that? Was she responsible for me feeling that spark of excitement under all the terror, or was that actually one of my own genuine feelings?

"Hey, Ray, you have to wake up," I said, feeling my throat constricting. My other hand was placed on her other cheek. I swallowed thickly.

"Ed…"

"Ray, wake up," I said again, raising my voice.

"Ray!" Al called out, sounding slightly panicked. I grimaced. He seemed to know as well as me just where her dream seemed to be going.

"Cock a doodle do, Ray. You have to—" I stopped when I felt my leg jerk towards the bed. All the blood I had collected from blushing drained out of my face.

In just a couple seconds I found myself straddling Ray with both my hands on her cheeks. Al was yelling in the background in an attempt to wake Ray up, but I couldn't hear him very well.

Straddling. Straddlingstraddlingstraddling. I was straddling Ray. Holy shit. Straddling. Ray. Rayrayray. Straddle. Keep control. I could feel her waist gripped between my knees. No. I said keep _control_,dammit! Control. Breathe. I closed my eyes and breathed deeply.

"Brother! Help me wake her up! Don't just sit there!"

Al sounded panicked. I smirked. It served him right for being an annoying little know-it-all. My left hand moved from Ray's cheek to the back of her neck, and my thoughts were racing again. I could hear Al squeak and jumble out a string of words saying that maybe a nurse would be able to help, and then there was clanking and I knew he was gone. I grinned and smirked.

"If he's getting a nurse, you might want to wake up so things don't get awkward," I chuckled as I looked down at Ray. She sighed and smiled up at me in her sleep.

"I can't understand how you're sleeping through all of this," I muttered. "I've got my legs wrapped around your waist and you're still sleeping without a care in the world. Though… I guess I should be grateful though. A dream could go a hell of a lot farther than stroking cheeks and straddling. How far would it take before you woke up, huh?"

"Edward… Don't make me sing. I don't want to go in that musical," Ray muttered under her breath. I frowned.

"What?"

"Don't make me wear that awful costume, please," Ray continued. "Isn't there some other way?"

"Some other way to do what?" I said, laughing and looking at her. "What kind of messed up dreams are you having, Ray?"

"Ed, I can't hold this police car much longer. Just promise me, okay?"

I tilted my head back and laughed. Police cars? Musicals? I had no idea what Ray was dream, but it seemed like something one would get when they were high off the medicine the hospital was pumping into them. Maybe I didn't have to worry so much about the position I was in. Anything could happen in a messed up dream like _that_.

"I don't even know what the hell I'm agreeing to, but sure, Ray, sure," I laughed. "I don't think it's very likely you'll even _remember_ this dream. But Ray, you know, the talking elephants might see us like this if we stay in this position much longer, and you know how those talking elephants can get."

"No… Elephants…" Ray frowned and tossed her head in her sleep.

"Don't worry, I'll just get off you and then we won't have to worry about them, right? No sweat."

"Right…"

I felt the invisible grip on my body release, and I sighed in relief and quickly climbed off Ray. That was one problem solved, at least.

"Ed, don't go…"

I winced as I felt my legs get a will of their own again. Then again, maybe not. So much for that plan. I crawled onto the space on the bed beside Ray and my hand draped itself over her shoulders. I sighed and shook my head. At least I wasn't in a dangerous position like last time. I wouldn't feel as embarrassed if a nurse were to walk in on us now. I'd still be embarrassed, sure. After all, the great Fullmetal Alchemist wasn't supposed to have any soft spots for _girls_. At least, not in that sort of way. That was Mustang's thing; seducing and charming women and taking them out on dates, it wasn't my thing. It wasn't _supposed_ to be my thing, at least. Damn, please don't tell me that having a Mustang the asshole phase was supposed to be part of growing up.

"Ray, you're screwing me up," I muttered and closed my eyes. I frowned and opened them again when I realized that darkness only made me concentrate on how her shoulders felt a little too strongly. "I was fine with staying a kid until you showed up, and now you're making me grow up faster than I ever planned on."

My eyes widened as I thought over what I said and realized just how true it actually was.

Duh! Of course that was it; how could I be so blind that I couldn't _see_ that?!

Ray had helped me move from the sulky teenager stage of my life to… something else. I wasn't sure what stage I was in, but I was more mature. Something had changed. And she had started that change somehow, in some way she acted. Hell, maybe she had wished I would just grow up already.

Of course I had a crush on her. If she was helping me grow up, it'd be hard not to have a crush on her, at least for a brief period of time. I had even had a crush on Teacher for a while, until I realized she was much older than me and was more like a mother than a possible girlfriend. (Well, and the hitting me on a daily basis didn't help much.) I cringed when I looked back to that time.

If I could have had a crush on Teacher when she was the help I had from one stage of my life to the next, of course I would have a crush, at least a little one, on the other girl to help me from one stage of my life to the next. It was too big of something to _not_ have a crush on someone. And of course it would keep bothering if I couldn't talk myself out of it with her being too old for me, or the opposite sex or some other easy truth like that. She was my age, a girl, and she was sticking around. Duh.

I sighed. Now that I had that figured out, what was I supposed to do? Convince myself that admiring someone for helping you to stop being a stupid teenage boy wasn't the same as having an actual relationship with them?

But then again, couldn't a deep relationship start from any origin?

I groaned and whacked my head against the pillow.

That was it. I could handle Ray. I'd been attracted to plenty other girls before and I hadn't let that bother me, had I? It was only the power of her being around all the time and the "wonderful person who helped me from the depths of teenage angst!" spell that was making me go so bonkers. Once I knew where the problem was coming from, it would be easy to ignore. Maybe not make my actual crush for Ray go away for awhile, but I could shove it to the side until I actually did outgrow the phase and could move on.

* * *

I sighed and tried to readjust myself on the bed. I had no idea how much time was passing. It felt like I had spent hours in the same position on the bed beside Ray. The first half hour had been uncomfortable, but I found that the more time I spent lying there, the less uneasy I felt. If only Ray would just wake up and let me out of her wish-grip.

Not to mention that Al hadn't returned since he had first left. I was suspicious that he had invented the excuse of leaving to find a nurse just because he had found the situation with me and Ray awkward. He had left me to fend for myself, the jerk. I _really _needed to carry out all those memos to myself to murder him later.

I sighed, and Ray's hair fluttered. I was close enough that I could actually see how the dye was starting to wear out. Some of her hair was back to its original color, giving her a more… dirty blond look than when I had first dyed her hair. I wondered absently if I really should re-dye it. I had first made her dye her hair before I knew about her wishing. If she really didn't want to be viewed as suspicious, it wouldn't matter how out of place she looked, she would manage to fit in anyway.

I sighed again. Why couldn't I have the same amount of sheer power as Ray had? Hell, she was keeping me lying on a bed next to her for hours without even being conscious. If anyone had ever told me a girl could do that to me before I had met Ray, I would have laughed in their face and walked away.

"…Ed?"

I jerked, realizing I had been completely lost in my thoughts about Ray. I turned my head to look at her. She was awake again, and staring at me with wide eyes.

"Hey." I made a weak attempt at a chuckle. She bit her lip and kept staring at me. "Uh… You must have had some bad dreams or something. You started wishing in your sleep."

I silently hoped that she wouldn't remember the first half of what may have happened in her dream, because I wasn't sure whether or not that would be considered a bad dream.

"Oh…" Ray frowned and continued biting her lip. "Sorry. It was kind of a bad dream." I felt the pressure holding my arm down over her shoulder release, and with a grateful yelp I jumped up from the bed and started stretching my limbs out again.

"Hey, don't worry about it," I managed to mutter to Ray. Saying it made me even more embarrassed than the situation had already made me, but the words ended up managing to slip out anyway. Ray smiled and readjusted herself on the bed.

"I'm sick of this stupid hospital," she whispered. I kept watching her and sat down in the chair beside her bed again.

"Yeah, they get boring after a while."

I wasn't sure what I could say. It seemed that a few hours of not even knowing how much time was passing had made me go a little crazy. Ray sighed and nodded. It seemed neither of us had something to say. Great.

"I wish we could just get out for a while," Ray whispered. I saw her think over her words for a second before she froze and her face took on a stunned expression. "I— I meant that… Ack!"

Then I managed to chuckle genuinely. I knew there were much worse things she could wish for than just getting out of the hospital for a few hours. She—

I frowned as I realized I was standing up. I looked down at my legs for a second before the impact of what Ray had said hit me fully.

_We._ She had said that she wished _we_ could get out of the hospital for a while. I groaned and slapped my palm to my face. When I opened my eyes again, Ray winced at my gaze. I sighed and walked over to her bed faster than the wish was doing. Hell, if I was going to do something, I wasn't going to give it complete control. If I couldn't control whether or not I would take Ray out of the hospital, I would at least control how fast I did it and where I would take her.

"Come on then," I sighed, holding out my hand to her. "Let's get out of here, if that's what you want so badly." Ray frowned and stared at me before she took my hand and let me pull her to her feet.

"I could try to un-wish it if you want…"

"Forget it, Ray." I laughed. Hadn't I just been thinking about how the hospital was driving me crazy but that I didn't know how to get out of there for a while without feeling guilty about what I had let happen to Ray? Hell, at least if we were both leaving the hospital I would be able to at least try to make it up to her.

We got out of the hospital without any incident, of course. It seemed far too easy with the way that none of the staff even seemed to look our way, even when Ray was completely dressed in hospital clothes, covered in bruises and had a cast on her arm.

More of a problem than getting out of the hospital was trying to figure out what to do once we weren't there anymore. Neither of us even seemed sure of what to talk about. I still felt too awkward from the few hours lying next to her to be able to start a conversation with her.

At least Ray seemed to be enjoying herself, even with the silence that had settled over us. She was smiling at nothing in particular and skipping down the sidewalk dressed in her hospital clothes. I rolled my eyes and followed after her.

After we had walked long enough to be at least a good half a mile away from the hospital, Ray stopped and stared at something down an ally. Her face cracked into a grin.

"I don't believe it! You have basketball here?" she said with an excited hop. I frowned. Basketball? What the hell was basketball? I walked up to the ally to see what she was talking about.

"Oh, that," I sighed and rolled my eyes when I saw one of the familiar hoops. "Yeah, whatever you call that, we've got it."

"What do _you_ call it?" Ray asked with a laugh. I shrugged. I had heard the game called by too many names to pinpoint it to one single title.

"All the kids in Reisenburgh always called it 'hoops'." Ray laughed and looked to the hoop and then back to me.

"Well, Ed, would you like to play some 'hoops' with me?" she said with a huge grin. I frowned and looked down at the cast on her arm. How did she expect to play without being able to use one of her arms? Sure, she could always wish to make it better, but it didn't seem like she would be doing that any time soon.

"Ray, you've got a broken arm," I sighed. "How do you expect to be able to play hoops like that?" She looked deflated for a brief moment, but then she seemed to get an idea and her face lit up just as quickly as it had gone out.

"We can play horse!"

"…Horse?" Now that was a name for hoops I had never heard of and didn't even understand how someone had thought of it. Basketball at least made some sense; after all, there was a basket, and there was a ball. Simple. But horse? There weren't any horses involved in the game at all. Maybe Ray was confusing games.

"It's really fun, I'll show you!" she said, running forward and grabbing the ball that had been left at the bottom of the hoop. I wondered if the neighborhood was either rich enough that people didn't care if their ball was stolen, or if someone just hadn't cared about the ball period and had left it there to die. Poor orphan ball.

"Okay, so you take turns, and the person who's going picks wherever they want to stand and they try to make a basket," Ray said, running over to a spot and holding the ball up as if she were about to throw it. "And if they make it, they get a point and the other person has to stand in the same spot and try to make a basket. The first person to reach five points wins."

"And if the first person doesn't make it?"

"Then the second person gets to stand wherever they want," Ray said, grinning and throwing the ball at me. I caught it with one hand.

"Well, if you'll try that with one hand, I guess I'm up for it," I shrugged, bouncing the ball against the ground one and catching it again. I wondered for a minute if I was supposed to go easy on Ray and let her win since she was the girl, but then I scowled and decided against it. I had already decided that I was going to treat Ray like any other girl, and she had challenged me to the game in the first place. If I had challenged her, now that would be a different matter. Besides, Ray had the advantage of wishing on her side. I was going to try everything I could to win.

"You go first," Ray said, her grin as big as a toddler with a fistful of candy. It looked like I had made her day. I smirked and shook my head and then looked up at the hoop before bending my knees and throwing the ball right through the center of the hoop. Ray groaned before running forward and grabbing the ball with her one good hand.

She missed the hoop and stuck her tongue out at me. I smirked and grabbed the ball.

"One to nothing!"

I missed my shot. Ray grabbed the ball in the air and started bouncing it against the ground as she looked around. Eventually she glanced back at me and grinned, then walked up to the hoop so she was only a couple feet away from it. My jaw dropped. Now _that_ was playing dirty.

"Hey! You can't do that! You know damn well you're tall enough to make that shot!"

Ray ignored me and tossed the ball almost straight up, only making it go forward enough to get through the net. I scowled and crossed my arms as she turned back to grin at me. Even with one hand she had managed to make that shot.

"It's not against the rules, Ed," she said and threw the ball to me. "You can go wherever you like to make your shot. Except this turn, because you have to go where I just went."

"You— You suck, you… you stupid tall person!"

"Oh, Ed," Ray chuckled. I felt a spout of anger bubble inside me. How could she just keep poking fun at my height with a grin on her face? What kind of sick mind was that? I found myself yelling at her, but I had no idea what the words coming out of my mouth translated to. Ray must have had some idea, because the look on her face changed from amused to that of a small animal about to be shot.

"Geez, Ed," she muttered once I was done. I smirked and huffed at her. Served her right. Maybe it'd teach her to stop calling me short. "I wish you would just hit your growth spurt already and get over your height issues."

I froze and blinked. Say what? Did I hear an "I wish" at the beginning of that sentence? Growth spurt? No way! Yes way! Whoohoo! Growth spurt! I nearly hugged Ray on the spot.

"Ray—!"

"Ed, it's still your turn," Ray sighed. Did she even realize what she had just done? I was about to explain it to her when I shrugged and decided to just go back to the game. She would figure it out soon enough if she hadn't already, and I didn't want to do something that would make her change the wish to something like making me forever short instead. It would be better to stay on her good side for now.

Somehow, even so close to the hoop, I managed to snag another point. Maybe my new height was already starting to affect me. I grinned and grabbed the ball and then handed it to Ray. She looked at me as if she were a puppy trying to figure something out, then shook her head and picked a spot to throw from.

Her shot bounced back to her. She scowled and tossed the ball back to me. I guessed that she wasn't used to throwing the ball with only one good working arm. Maybe I could let her win, just in exchange for her making me tall… nah. I'd repay her for that some other way later. Winning a game of hoops was not anywhere near equal to making me hit my growth spurt.

We both continued shooting at the hoop until I had only one more point to go to win the game, while Ray was still at a score of three. She had seemed to cheer up once we had gotten past the short argument, poking fun at both mine and her own shooting techniques. I hadn't played hoops in years, but somehow, I was having a great time with Ray. It sure beat sitting around in the hospital.

"Noo, I won't let you win!" Ray laughed as I picked my spot to throw from. I glanced over at her just in time to see her come running towards me, wrapping her good arm around my shoulders as she reached for the ball in my hand. I laughed and held it out of her reach.

Then I froze. Aw, hell. Did she not realize just how much of her I could actually _feel_ when she pressed up against my back like that? Was she really that naïve, or was she doing this to me on purpose?

Treat her like any other girl. Just any other normal girl. It was getting harder by the second. I winced and closed my eyes for a second, then threw the ball. It went through the hoop with a swish. I'd won the game. That didn't register properly in my mind as I scowled and turned around to look at Ray. How could she put herself in such immodest positions like that and not even realize what she was doing?

"Dammit, Ray, would you just _stop_ flirting with me already?" I snapped at her. Her eyes got wide and she took a step backwards.

"Ed, I didn't mean—"

"I don't care! You keep doing this to me, and I can't take anymore! I'm sick of every move you make being one where you end up touching me in some flirty sort of way!

"Ed—"

"Forget it, Ray! Just leave me alone!" I snapped at her. I wasn't even sure of why I was saying all the words that were coming out of my mouth, I just knew I was half-mad and needed to get out of there. I sighed and looked at Ray one more time, then turned and started running down the sidewalk. At least running made me able to get out all my energy without making it look like I had just kicked a puppy.

Ray stayed by the hoop. I could feel her watching me as I ran for a few blocks, but then I turned a corner and couldn't feel her eyes boring into my back any more.

* * *

"Brother, where's Ray? Where did you go?"

"I took her out of the hospital for a few hours," I muttered, looking down at the ground and jamming my hands in my pockets. I could feel Al's expression change. Normal people couldn't ever see his expression change at all, but I could feel it in my gut.

"Brother, how could you?! What would make you think that taking a girl with a broken arm out of the hospital for a few hours would be a good idea?! That was stupid, Brother! Where is she now?"

"Look, Al, she wished for it, okay?" I snapped back at him, turning my head up to look at him. "And I don't know where he is. We got in a fight and I lost her. She'll come back here eventually though."

"What were you fighting over?"

"I don't want to talk about it, Al," I muttered, sitting down in the chair by Ray's bed that I had practically lived in since she had first come to the hospital.

"I don't care, Brother," Al said, and I snapped my head up to look at him again. "You are going to talk about what happened between you two, whether you're comfortable with the situation or not. So you better start talking now before it gets ugly." I scowled and stuck my tongue out at Al. He didn't say anything and crossed his arms. Jerk. Wasn't I supposed to kill him later?

"I don't even understand, Al," I sighed after a minute. "We were just playing hoops together, and then she grabbed me from behind, and I ended up snapping at her and storming off." I paused for a minute and sighed heavily. "Dammit, Al. Why do I like her so much? I've never had a crush this bad. I just want to treat her like any other normal girl."

"That sounds a bit hard," Al laughed. "Considering she's anything _but_ a normal girl."

I frowned. "I thought it was only me who saw her that way." Al sighed and shook his head.

"Brother, you're hanging around a girl that's been called a living, breathing version of the Philosopher's Stone, and you think you're the only one who sees her as special just because you happen to like her? Let me tell you something, Brother. Crushes don't just pull good things about people out of nowhere. Exaggerate them, maybe, but usually there's already something good there that other people can see."

I frowned and turned my head to look at the wall. I wasn't entirely sure what to make of that.

"Brother, why are you so scared of liking her anyway?"

"Because…" I muttered, running a hand through my bangs. Good question. Why exactly _was_ I having so much difficulty with this, even after Al had said he wouldn't feel like I was abandoning him? I thought over that for a minute and then sighed.

"Hey, Al?"

"Yeah?"

I took a deep breath, still not looking at Al. It was too hard to look at him and ask what I wanted to anyway. "How badly do _you_ think I like her?" I knew I had a tendency to downplay feelings, especially if they were feelings over a girl. And if I was always downplaying feelings and I had gotten to the point where I had admitted that I knew I had a crush on her, then how bad might my feelings actually be? Al sighed as if that was a difficult thesis question that would take months to fully answer. Maybe it was. My feelings did get rather complicated, after all.

"She's part of the family, Brother. Maybe you don't like it, but she is all the same. I think if you're asking me how you feel about her, you should be examining that more closely yourself. You're an alchemist. Use that to your advantage and start figuring it out yourself."

"Al, I can't—"

"Brother, what do you think your feelings for Ray are?"

"I-I-I—" I stumbled over the question. He wasn't supposed to turn it back on me like that. Then again, he was Al. He could turn any question back on me if he wanted. "I don't know, Al."

"Then try."

"I… You're not going to let me go until I answer this, are you? I said, looking back to Al and squirming in my seat. He nodded. "Damn you, Al."

"You're the one who asked me first. You put yourself in this position. Now figure out something." I sighed and crossed my arms across my chest. Damn little brothers.

So how exactly _did _I feel about Ray anyway? I grunted as I tried to think about it. Every time she touched me had me going crazy. I wanted to hear what she thought of things, especially things that I had trouble understanding myself.

She was almost like having another Al around, except she happened to be a girl.

I frowned and pulled out of my thoughts before I could get any farther. I didn't like where that line of thought was going. No one except Al was supposed to feel like… Al. He was my brother. He went everywhere with me. Other people weren't supposed to be able to toe that same line. Especially not girls I had only met… what, a week and a half ago? I was starting to lose track of the days.

"I… you're right, she is part of the family," I sighed. Al shook his head.

"You really need to stop running from your feelings, Brother." I frowned. Was that good or bad for him to say? Was he saying I had admitted enough and I needed to do it more often, or was he saying I had only scratched the surface and hadn't gone as deep into my feelings as I was supposed to?

I didn't want to think about it anymore. It was getting harder and harder to handle by the second.

"Dammit. Why is she able to do this to me?" I muttered, running my hands through my bangs again. "How can she manage to affect me so badly without even doing anything? Why do I _care_ so much? It's like I've known her for years instead of just days."

"Brother," Al said as he sat on the bed and put a hand on my arm. "It's because you lo—"

"I need some fresh air," I interrupted, jerking my arm out of his grip as I stood up. I didn't want to dig into my feelings any deeper than I had already dug. "Ray should come back soon enough. I'll be back in half an hour."

I walked out of that room as fast as I could without looking like I was running. But I was running, all the same. I didn't want to hear what Al had to say because I knew that he might be right. I would rather wander aimlessly through the streets of Central than stick around in that hospital and hear everything Al had to say.

When I got back after my half hour of alone time, any talk of feelings had been thrown out the window. Al was pacing the room and wringing his hands.

Ray still wasn't back.

* * *

_**Lesson of the Day**__**—Regarding hospital garb**__**: **_

Yes, Ray ran around town without putting on normal clothes. I realized after writing this that many people might get confused and be thinking Ed can see her butt crack through the hole in the back of the hospital gown, and why is he doing that?! But also remember back to when Ed was in the hospital? XD He had a spiffy pants, shirt and slippers combo as his hospital garb. So while she might be just a tad cold, Ray IS decent!

* * *

_**Author's Note: **_

Auuuugh… -falls in pool of blood-

I know, I said I was working on it. I know, it took me forever anyway. I know, I was supposed to be updating these regularly. Murder me.

Believe it or not, I started this chapter four different times. I have three old copies I now get to delete without worrying I might kill something useable. I kept starting a chapter and then would get horribly stuck on it and set it aside for weeks at a time until I would look back at it and realize I had painted myself into a corner with it. So then I would restart. Same story.

Until, ladies and gentlemen, we are here. Apologies, love and cookies to all for waiting! –throws out cookies-

For those who miss the Ray POV, I was figuring on waiting until chapter 21 to bring her back, but I've figured to forget that and just go back to her POV next chapter. Death to nice, even numbers of chapters and fairness among character POV!

* * *

_**Review Replies (thanks so much everyone!):**_

Hoooolee… Yeah. No way I'm going to respond to all of these. I love all you guys to pieces, but I think I'm going to kill the review replies section henceforth. There's just far too many! Wait… that's a good thing, isn't it?


	17. Chapter 17

**_Chapter Seventeen – Concerning Bragging, Dreaming, and Worrying_**

I bit my lip and stared after Ed as he ran down the sidewalk. I'd had no idea I was being… flirty. I had just been treating Ed like I treated anyone else, which was hard enough in itself to do, considering that he was Edward Elric, for crying out loud.

I groaned and threw the basketball towards the hoop. Of course I had to screw up the fact that I was hanging around the Elric brothers. I knew it had been too good to last. His screaming at me had only been the inevitable.

I sat down on the ground, feeling the coldness of the cement press against my legs. I shivered and hugged my cast to my chest in an attempt to keep warm. They really had to start making their hospital uniforms thicker. Though I had to admit, I much preferred the thin clothes to the hospital gowns back in America.

I bit my lip, trying to figure out what to do. Al was at the hospital, so Ed was bound to go back there. And he had told me to leave him alone, so there was no way I could go back to where I knew he would be, even if I was supposed to be in the hospital anyway.

"I don't know what to do," I said to no one, feeling my lip tremble like I was about to cry. It felt like the times back in elementary school when my mom had been late to pick me up and I had felt abandoned from it.

I sat there for a while, not doing much of anything besides holding back tears. It felt like I was waiting for something, but even I didn't know what it was. I bit my lip and let out a shaky sigh. It was like I was back to square one again. Without the Elric brothers to follow, I wasn't quite sure where I would go. Not to mention that Ed had told me I stuck out in a crowd.

I'm not sure exactly how long I sat there, but it was definitely long enough that I was starting to get cold and tired. All I wanted was to have a nice warm dinner and go lie down in a bed with a couple blankets. Home was sounding even better than it had a week ago. I had never thought that if I had ever been in the FMA world, I would be sitting alone on some street corner doing nothing and wishing I were anywhere else.

I sniffled. Things weren't going the way they were supposed to at all.

"Hey!"

I jolted at the voice and looked up. Hughes was waving at me as he walked down the street. I smiled weakly and waved back at him. He grinned at me and went into a slight jog to get to me faster.

"You're Ed's girlfriend, aren't you?" he asked as I stood up again. I opened my mouth to protest, but then realized it was stubborn Hughes I was dealing with and decided against it. Instead I just tried my best to nod and smile.

"We… we got in a bit of a fight and he stormed off on me," I said, figuring there was no way that would count as a lie. Now, the way Hughes might interpret it could lead to problems, but it seemed that Hughes could interpret anything the wrong way.

"Don't worry about that, I'm sure you two will be back together in no time!" Hughes said cheerfully, putting his arm around my shoulder and giving me a wide grin. "Soon he'll realize just how much he can't live without you around and he'll come crawling back to apologize! And in the meantime, you can stay with us!"

"Uh…" I fidgeted. I didn't really know where else to go, since anywhere I could think of would be a place where Ed might be, but spending a whole night with Hughes seemed a bit intimidating.

Then again, I had stayed for a couple days with Izumi. Hughes couldn't be much worse. At least I knew he wouldn't physically abuse me like Izumi. I smiled up at Hughes and nodded.

"I would really appreciate that. Thanks."

"Good, it's all settled!" Hughes said, grabbing my wrist and starting to drag me down the sidewalk. "And while we're walking, I'll show you some pictures of my wonderful little joy, my darling, the love of my life!"

I winced and sighed. Right. I had forgotten about that part. But hey, how many pictures could the guy have before he ran out? All I had to do was smile and nod, smile and nod, and eventually he'd run out of steam and stop.

Boy, was I ever wrong there.

I lost track of how many pictures I had seen after the first 20. I could tell from the way he was going that there was no such thing as "running out of steam" with Hughes. Somehow he'd be able to show me pictures until the end of time, though I wasn't sure where he'd store enough pictures to do so.

"And this is Elysia with her grandmother! And this one is Elysia with her grandfather, isn't she cute? And here she is in front of the tree, and here she is on Wednesday!"

I blinked. I had no idea that Wednesday was special enough to merit picture taking. I sighed and listened to Hughes keep going full steam ahead. He didn't seem to have noticed that I had stopped smiling and nodding half an hour ago.

It almost sounded like a strange new sort of Dr. Seuss book, the way he kept going. Elysia on Pop, Elysia with mop! Elysia with mom, Elysia and Tom! Elysia in tree, Elysia loves me! Maybe I could make that into a book someday. It would only have one buyer, but I figured that Hughes would buy enough copies of the book to make me rich.

"Hey, Hughes?" I said, looking up at him. He didn't even pause in his Elysia-speak. I sighed and rolled my eyes. "You're just going to keep going until something happens, aren't you?" I muttered, looking over at the shops he was dragging me past. Central looked like an interesting place to go shopping in, but it wasn't like I had any sort of time for something frivolous like shopping.

"What if I asked you for dating advice?" I said, looking at Hughes to see of there was any response. Hey, anything was worth a try if it would get him to change topics. I had no idea that pictures of an adorable girl would get so boring.

Hughes didn't seem to comprehend that I had spoken at all, considering the way he going. I rolled my eyes and bit my lip. My only hope was that we would get to the house soon enough to make him stop.

I felt my thoughts flick back to Ed. I was starting to scare myself. Here I had thought I was obsessed back in my world, meeting him and then being separated from him only seemed to make it worse.

I tried to picture him in my mind, and I grinned when I realized that I knew him well enough that it was easy to conjure up and image and I even could remember what his voice sounded like with the image. His voice was so much different than Vic Mignogna. For starters, I had never thought of Edward Elric as having an accent, but he had a bit of one to his voice. It made him sound more… mature, even if he was acting as immaturely as ever. The longer "ah" sound replacing the A's, and the general… _softness_ to his accent made it so relaxing to just sit and listen to him talk. I missed listening to Ed talk.

Whoa, hang on, just what exactly was I thinking?

I frowned and shook my head. I knew I had a crush on Ed. Heck, I'd had a crush on him back when he wasn't supposed to even exist, and then suddenly I had been thrown into his world. But back when he didn't exist it was okay to have a boyfriend and a crush on Ed at the same time. But now Ed was so _real_. I couldn't have a crush on a _real_ guy. I had a boyfriend.

I was jerked out of my thoughts when Hughes suddenly grabbed my wrist and pulled me into a store we had been about to walk past. I grimaced and realized that maybe paying at least slight attention to Hughes would have its few benefits, such as knowing what was going on when something like this happened.

"I'll be back in just a moment!" Hughes said, practically sing and skipping away. I stared after him for a minute before I sighed and turned to look at the display in front of me. We were in some sort of store that sold Stuffed animals and candy. The store was also a little obsessed with bright colors. It seemed like something straight out of Japan. I chuckled nervously to myself and picked up a large stuffed frog with a top hat.

"I heard this was the only place that carried it," a familiar voice said. My eyes widened. The thought of running into Roy in some sort of J-pop wannabe store was not a very pleasant thought. Heck, it was a crowded enough store, maybe I could duck and cover behind some stuffed animals until he left. I glanced down at the frog in my hands and then buried my face in it. Maybe he would think I was taking a nap. Standing up.

One could hope.

"A gift for a girlfriend, perhaps?" a cheerful girl's voice said.

"Er… Yeah, something like that," Roy said. I could hear footsteps walking past me. I didn't dare look up. Then the footsteps stopped. I held the frog tighter to my face. Nothing to see here, continue on with your daily lives. There's no girl burying her face in a frog plushie with a top hat.

"Hang on," Roy said, and a thick hand settled on my shoulder. "I know you."

Man, was he good. I wanted to kick him for being so perceptive. A kick would have earned me a few bonus points with Ed anyway, it would have been killing two birds with one stone. Maybe if I kicked Mustang enough, Ed would actually consider me his friend.

I sighed and pulled my face out of the frog plushie. There wasn't much point left to hiding if he had already spotted me. I winced when Roy's eyes narrowed at the recognition of my face.

"You." He reminded me of a growling dog with all the hairs on its back bristling. "What are you doing here?"

"I—"

"Look at this! Don't you think Elysia will just love it? I can't wait to see her little face light up!" Hughes yelled it towards me as he marched through the store with a huge teddy bear holding a box of chocolates in its hands. His grin looked like it could blind. No one in the store could miss him.

Roy froze.

He stared at Hughes for a minute, then looked back at me, then back at Hughes again. Hughes seemed too busy smiling to open his eyes enough to see his old best friend standing there.

Roy turned to stare at me, his gaze icy. I winced. The man really was a lot scarier than he had been in the manga or anime. I thought I could see his eye twitch as he stared at me, but I wasn't sure, so I brushed it off and decided not to try and figure it out.

"You play a sick game," Roy spat at me. "Burn in hell."

Before I could say another word, he had turned around and stormed out of the shop, leaving the poor store assistant calling after him if he still wanted to buy the candy he had come for.

Hughes came up to me and put the teddy bear in my good arm, then finally seemed to notice what was going on and frowned at my expression.

"What's going on? Did I miss something?" he asked, putting a hand on my shoulder and leaning forward. I sighed and shook my head. Sometimes I wished I could be Hughes.

* * *

I stared ahead of me. I was standing on a high cliff, looking down at the city below me. The city was burning. I could hear people screaming and running through the streets, and while my heart was breaking at the thought of all those lives going up in smoke, I couldn't force my feet to move.

"It's strangely hypnotizing, isn't it?" a voice from behind me said. I turned around to look at him.

Even though he didn't have blond hair, golden eyes, or even a familiar facial structure, something in my gut screamed that I was looking at Ed. Maybe it was simply the way he held his face, even if the face looked completely different.

"The whole world is going to die," he whispered, stepping forward and looking at the city below us. He paused for a minute and then put his hand around my shoulders. "Including us."

"We've killed too many worlds," I whispered, somehow knowing it was true without understanding what I meant. Ed winced and closed his eyes with a nod. "This needs to end," I pressed, my voice quavering slightly. Ed sighed heavily and opened his eyes again to stare at me.

"It will end. We'll find ways to fix other worlds without ending them," he said as he rubbed his fingers in small circles on my shoulder. I frowned and shook his hand off.

"No," I said, and he frowned. "How many other times have we promised that? How many times have we killed an entire world and let ourselves die with it only to reincarnate and do it again? We can't stop doing this, Edward. This—" I motioned to the burning city, "—is our nature."

"Rebecca…"

"No." I shook my head and stared into his eyes. "I love you—"

"I love you too."

I sighed and shook my head. "No, I was going to say that I love you, _but_ we can't choose our love over other people's lives. This time, when we reincarnate, we'll be in different worlds."

"What?" Ed leaned forward and grabbed my shoulders. "You can't mean that! Don't do that to me! I can't live in a world without you!"

"We have to," I sighed. I leaned forward and kissed his cheek. "If it's so painful to you, erase your memories of… all this when you reincarnate. I'll do the same."

"But… What if we never find one another again? We won't have the memories, we'll be in different worlds—" I sighed and shook my head with a smile.

"This is true love, Edward. We'll find one another again, don't worry. But we have to learn not to be destroyers of worlds before we meet up again," I said. He winced and bit his lip.

"But what if we _don't_?"

"We will."

"But…"

I cut off his protests by leaning forward and kissing him on the lips. He was still for a moment, then relaxed and wrapped his arms around my waist. I smiled against him before pulling away. He looked at me like a lost puppy.

"I don't want to lose you, Rebecca," he whispered, running his hands through my hair. "I've had you in my arms for a hundred years since we first fell in love, I don't want to stop now."

"You won't lose me," I smiled at him. "I swear, one way or another, someday I will come to your world." He sighed and bit his lip again. He didn't seem reassured by the thought. I sighed and thought for a minute.

"How about this, Edward?" I said slowly. He looked at me hopefully. I could tell he was desperate for something, anything to keep us together. "You reincarnate first. Then I'll stick around in your world for a year to set up a spell. If you and I haven't found one another after seventeen years of us being apart have passed, then I'll be pulled forcefully from my world into yours."

"But— Forcefully is so… it could tear you apart!" he said. His eyes flared and his grip on my waist tightened. I grinned up at him.

"Come on, this is me we're talking about, isn't it? I'll be able to handle it."

"But…" he closed his eyes and shook his head again. "I don't like it. You have no idea what could happen."

"All the more motivation for me to find you," I whispered back to him. He sighed and opened his eyes.

"You won't have any memories."

"A desire this large doesn't need memories."

Ed was quiet for a minute as he stared at me. All I could hear was the screams of the people in the city below us. After what felt like too long in silence, Ed sighed heavily and hung his head.

"Alright," he whispered. "Let's do it."

I woke up with a jolt. I glanced around the room and then sighed in relief when I saw I was in the spare bedroom at the Hughes household.

I had been surprised that Gracia was so accommodating to a girl she didn't know showing up with the husband she thought was dead, but she had seemed to be in a bit of shock too. She had only looked at him once, and then she had focused on me. I had started explaining to her about being a friend of the Elrics, and then she stopped me and told me where the spare bedroom was.

Once I wasn't in the same room, I heard her start screaming at Hughes before she broke into tears. I rolled over and looked at the clock. That had been hours ago. I sure hoped they had worked everything out by now.

I sat up and wiped at my brow with my good hand. I was covered in sweat. What a strange dream. And what was even stranger was that every little detail was clear in my mind. Usually my dreams got somewhat fuzzy after I woke up, if I managed to remember them at all.

I sighed and clasped my hands together. I had once told my mother that every dream had a message to convey if you looked, and while my mother had laughed at that theory, I still believed it. So what message was there in this dream?

Well, I missed Ed, for starters. And I also had a desperate crush on him; that was certain. Enough that I was having dreams of him telling me he loved me and was holding me in his arms. But another part of me had to think that we were better off each living in different worlds, because that was the agreement that had been reached by the end of the dream.

"_Maybe you had that dream because it really happened,"_ a voice whispered in my ear. I frowned and shook it off. There had been talk about reincarnation in the dream, and I knew that wasn't true. There was no way that could have ever really happened.

I sighed and climbed out of the bed, fluffing my hair out. It was still short enough that I couldn't pull it into a ponytail, which got really annoying at times, though I did like the short hair. What was even stranger was to think that I had blond hair if I were to look in a mirror, but I liked to try and not think about that as often as I could. It got weird enough is a strand of my own hair fell in front of my eyes. My hair was supposed to be brown, not blond.

I sighed and walked out of the room. I hadn't gotten changed into pajamas before I had fallen asleep, so I didn't have a need to change back into my normal clothes before walking out of the room.

As soon as I was out in the hall, I was greeted by a whirlwind of energy.

"You brought Daddy home again! Mommy said he wasn't ever coming back, but you brought him here! Thank you, thank you, thank you!"

Elysia wrapped her arms around me tightly and buried her face against my chest. I couldn't help but grin, even with all that was on my mind. I patted her head happily. Little kids were so much fun to hang around.

"You're welcome," I said. She was making me remember why I had wanted Hughes to be alive again in the first place. Even though I had gotten the cold treatment from Roy for him being alive again, it was worth it to see how happy his daughter was. Putting up with Hughes' pictures was even okay now that I was seeing how adorable Elysia honestly was in comparison to her pictures.

"Come on! Come downstairs!" Elysia said, pulling away from me and grabbing my hand. "Mommy's making cookies to celebrate, and you can play with me and Daddy! We're doing a puzzle together, but Daddy likes throwing the pieces around the room more than helping me finish the puzzle."

I laughed. No doubt he was doing that because he found Elysia's reactions adorable, or something like that. I stood up and let Elysia lead me down to the living room.

Hughes was curled up on the floor, staring at a puzzle with flowers intently. As soon as he heard Elysia approaching, he jumped to his feet and ran towards us to pick her up. She squealed in his arms.

"Daddy! Your beard tickles! Stooop! Noooo!"

I smiled and clasped my hands behind my back. It really was just like in the anime. They were such a happy family together, it was wonderful to see that hadn't changed one bit. Gracia came out of the kitchen with a bowl and a spoon in her hands. She gave me a weak smile after a moment of watching Hughes and Elysia playing together. She took a breath and then walked up to me.

"I don't know what happened," she whispered to me. "He says it was some elaborate military hoax, but I don't believe it for a second. He was really dead. I saw him. But whatever happened, I'm sure you had something to do with it, so thank you. It really is him. I've met another man in the city before who tries to convince me he's Hughes—"

I felt my eyes widen. Envy? It sure sounded like him. I had no idea why he would want to get to Gracia.

"—But that man has never felt like Hughes. He... He really feels like the man I married. He can't be anyone else. And whatever happened, I'm sure you had something to do with it, so, thank you," she said softly. I opened my mouth to try and say something, but I found that I couldn't think of anything to say, not even a denial that I had been involved.

Instead I managed to squeak out a weak, "You're welcome." Gracia smiled at me and turned to go back into the kitchen.

"I could use a little extra help with the cookies, if you like," she called out over her shoulder. I grinned and shook my head. I didn't consider myself any sort of pro in the kitchen, I felt like I'd more likely hinder rather than help.

I looked back at Hughes and Elysia. They really were happy to be together again. Hughes was busy giving Elysia a piggyback ride around the room, while she held out her arms as if she were an airplane and squealed in delight. I laughed just watching the two have fun together. I could remember playing similar games with my father when I was a small girl. Then I had gotten too big to ride on his shoulders without hurting him.

Hughes paused for a minute when he caught my eye. I stared back at him in the brief moment, and then he smiled and winked at me before continuing on with his game. I laughed and slumped onto the couch. The only thing that could have made the moment any more perfect would have been the Elric brothers being there to share in the pure joy that was filling the entire room.

* * *

The cookies Gracia made were delicious. An hour after we had eaten them, it was turning dark outside and Hughes had put Elysia to bed, despite her protesting. My leg had fallen asleep after her desperate clinging.

I sighed and leaned back on the couch. Thanks to my nap, I wasn't tired. Even though it was only nine o'clock at night and I normally didn't go to bed that early. I wished something would happen, because sitting and listening to Hughes and Gracia talk wasn't all that interesting.

Wait... I smacked my forehead. I really had to be more careful with using the word "wish" in my own thoughts. On second thought, I wished—

There was a knock at the door. Too late. I stood up and went to answer it. Hughes was too busy chatting with his wife, it was easier for me to just answer the door.

I opened the door, and then stared at who was standing there. Though, honestly, I should have not been a bit surprised at who showed up.

"Hey, Rebecca," Ed mumbled. He looked up at me and gave a weak attempt at a smile before scratching his head and looking down at the ground again. I bit my lip.

"Hey, Ed."

"So... you're okay then. That's good."

"What, you thought I wasn't okay? You didn't have to worry about me, I can take care of myself." I stared at Ed. His eyes flashed and he quickly shook his head.

"No! I… _I_ wasn't worried about you. Er… Al… when you didn't come back, he thought that… Ah, never mind."

I chuckled and shook my head. Same old Ed as ever. My mind flashed back instantly to the dream I had earlier that day, but then I shook that idea off. Maybe that dream had contained some significance, but since I had already figured out what it meant, I didn't have to worry about it any further.

"What did I tell you?! I knew he would come back to apologize and tell you he can't live without you!"

Ed flinched at Hughes's words and snapped his head up. Somehow Hughes had managed to sneak up behind me in the middle of my conversation with Ed, though it didn't seem that surprising, considering it was Hughes.

"Hey! I didn't come here to tell her that!" Ed snapped back at him. Hughes smiled and shook his head.

"Oh, don't worry, not another word, I'll leave you two lovebirds alone."

"We're not—! Dammit!" Hughes had already slunk off without paying Ed any more attention. Ed rolled his eyes and unclenched his fists.

"Look, Ray, I…" he closed his eyes and scratched the back of his head. "You didn't have to go running off, you know."

"You told me not to bother you anymore," I muttered.

"Yeah, that doesn't mean I meant it!" I snapped my head up to look at Ed. He winced and went back to looking down.

"Your… Your arm is still broken. And Al's really worried that you ran into En— Anyone dangerous, really. He was beginning to think that if you weren't dead, you had been raped." I nearly snorted. Al the worrywart.

"Uh… Yeah… Ed, about that…"

"What?!" Ed looked up at me with wide eyes. I burst out laughing. His reaction was priceless. When I looked up at Ed again, his eyes were narrowed as he stared at me. I grinned at him, and after a bit of silence, he snorted in a half-chuckle and shook his head.

"Ah, Ray. Just… would you come back to the hospital? Al's worried sick about you."

I sighed. As much as I didn't like Al worrying, I wished Ed would give a different reason for me to go back instead of just the fact that Al was so worried about me.

"Yeah, well, you can tell Al that I'm at Hughes's place. That should be enough for him not to worry about me."

"No, it won't." Ed shook his head. "This is Al. Even after you're sitting with him, it'll still take a good half hour for his worry to completely die down."

"Well, then send Al after me," I said with a roll of his eyes. Ed groaned and stamped his foot. I turned to go inside again, but Ed grabbed my wrist. I turned back around to look at him. His bangs were preventing me from seeing his eyes.

"That won't work either," he muttered.

"Why not?"

"Because… Ah… Just because." I sighed and jerked my hand out of Ed's grip. I guessed that he must have let me go, because there's no way that _Ed_ would be that easy to escape from.

"Ed, tell me why that won't work either."

"Because." I bit my lip. I was beginning to wonder whether something had happened to Al that would prevent him from coming to get me. But Ed had also said that Al was worried. I frowned. The situation was too confusing.

"Ed, why won't that work?"

"Because… I…" Ed sighed and shook his head.

"Ed, either tell me or just go!"

"Because I was worried about you too!"

I blinked. Ed's frown deepened and he turned his head to look away from me.

"Because… I was worried… about you… I… I was… forget it."

I tried to take a deep breath. It was getting hard to keep my crazy crush desires under control. It was Edward Elric. Sure, he formed connections with people, but he didn't like girls like _that_. He was worried about me because we had become friends. And heck, friends with Edward Elric was a lot more than so many other girls got, so I would be happy with what I did have.

"Ray, I... I was scared something had happened to you. I was scared that the last thing I would have said to you was... I just..." Ed sighed and looked up at me. "You must think I'm stupid now, huh?"

I frowned. "For what, caring about people?" Ed bit his lip and did a half-nod. I chuckled and wrapped him in a hug. Ed stiffened under my touch.

"You're not stupid for caring for people, Ed. You're a really amazing guy, and most guys I know won't even admit to ever being scared because they were worried about one of their friends. I think it's really amazing that you would actually admit that to me. And the fact that you can care so deeply for other people is just…" I sighed and shook my head against his shoulder. Having Ed's bangs burshing against my skin was not helping me speak clearly. I pulled away from him and stared him in the eyes. He was looking at me like a deer caught in the headlights. "You're amazing, Ed."

"Really?"

I laughed and shook my head. "I wouldn't have said so otherwise."

"I… I just… Ray…" Ed sighed and hung his head so his bangs were covering his face again. "Would you just come back?"

"Uh…" I glanced back at the house behind me and thought back to how Elysia had been clinging to my leg. "I think it'd be better if I stayed the night and left in the morning. Elysia would be upset if I just left while she was asleep, and—"

"Right." Ed was looking out at the street. "I just wish that..." he stopped and sighed heavily, then shook his head. "Ah, never mind, it's not important."

"Sure it is."

Ed blinked and turned back to look at me again, his eyes wide. I bit my lip. I couldn't believe the words that were coming out of my own mouth. Ed considered me for a minute, then chuckled and shook his head.

"Fine. I was just thinking about how I wish I could keep an eye on you through the night so I wouldn't have to spend the whole night tossing and turning because I'm wondering if it's really true that nothing has happened."

"Ed—"

"Yeah, I know, you'll be in a house with a man in the military and all that, there's nothing to worry about. Not to mention your wishing powers. You'll be fine, I'm sure. I just… I guess I'll seeya in the morning." He turned to leave, but this time, I was the one to grab his wrist.

"Ed, maybe Gracia and Hughes would let you stay the night."

He froze and turned back around to look at me with wide eyes.

"Really? You'd… You'd be okay with that?"

I laughed. "Of course I would. It's not my house, I'm not the one whose approval you should be worried about."

"I guess so."

"Uh…" I tugged on Hughes's sleeve as he tried to tiptoe past us. "Would it be alright if Ed and Al stayed the night here too?"

"Of course!" Hughes slung his arm around my shoulders. "The more, the merrier! Ed, you did the right thing, apologizing to your girlfriend like that." Ed groaned and rolled his eyes.

"She's not my—"

"Oh, young love! I tell you, when Gracia and I were young and first met, she was the cutest thing you could ever lay your eyes on!" Ed and I shared a look of mutual inner eye-rolls together. I chuckled and shook my head. It seemed like there'd never be any chance of changing Hughes.

"Look, I've got to go find Al," Ed said, going back to scratching his head. "We split up in order to try and find you. But then I'll come right back, alright?"

"Alright." Hughes was still in the background babbling about his wife. Or maybe his daughter. I wasn't exactly keeping track of when he would switch from talking about one to the other.

"Ray, I… Thanks." Ed looked up at me and smiled. I felt like my heart had melted. He then turned around and left. I sighed and leaned against the wall.

"You've got a boyfriend," I muttered to myself.

"Yes, and a fine one at that." I looked over at Hughes and sighed as my thoughts flicked back to my _real_ boyfriend back home. If only Ed were my boyfriend instead. He didn't seem like the lemme-eat-your-face type.

I scowled and muttered, "Yeah, if only he was."

* * *

_**Author's Note:**_

-wipe brow- Another one bites the dust! I know, it took me a while to write this, but I stumbled into a bit of what some people would call a writer's block, but now I'm finally starting to climb out of it, so hopefully I'll keep up with chapters this time around! Whoo!

So, anyway, I've outlined all of the first part of this story, and pretty much did an anime-style sweatdrop when I realized that for the first part of this story, I'd end up doing FORTY chapters. –faints- The longest fanfic I've done so far was 25 chapters, and those were a third of the size of these chapters, so that would be… A THOUSAND OF MY OLD CHAPTERS?? You've got to be kidding me!!

Ehm… -grins and scratches back of head- Moving on before I have a heart attack. Who here is stoked by the new anime, huh? I love this one so much more than the last anime! It's so much more believable, lol!

In other news, my mom gave me a new coat that's perfect for an Ed cosplay. I only bring it up because I'm wearing it right now. And I'm a nerd. But it's comfy!

Thanks for reading, I love you reviewers soooo much!


	18. Chapter 18

_**Chapter Eighteen – Concerning Memories, Stunt Doubles, and Equivalence**_

I opened my eyes and blinked a few times, staring around the room in front of me. Something about it seemed oddly familiar, but I couldn't place my finger on what it was. I sat up with a groan and rubbed at my head. Where had I been last?

Oh, yeah, that was it. I had been staying with Hughes and Gracia, and then Ed had decided to stay there with me. I frowned and took a minute to recall what my room at that house had looked like.

It was a cozy room. There were curtains on the window across from me, and thick quilts had been pulled over me. I glanced to my side and saw a nightstand with a glass of water on it.

My frown deepened. Talk about your déjà vu. Something about the room was so…

Then I blinked. I remembered where I was. It was the spare room at Winry's house. The same room I had woken up in when I had first showed up in the FMA world. I yanked the covers off and jumped out of the bed.

I was in the same nightgown she had dressed me in when I had first been unconscious. This was getting weird. I grabbed my glasses off the nightstand and shoved them on my face. Then I saw that my orange bag was in the same place it had been that first night. I sucked in a breath of air and left the room without opening my bag to see if I had even kept anything from the journey I could remember.

I walked down the hallway and then into the living room. Winry was sitting out on the sofa with some automail book in her hands. I felt like my heart was about to stop beating.

"Um…" I licked my lips and stared at Winry. "Hi?"

"Hi," Winry said back with a smile. "It's good to see you're all right. You know, you shouldn't go out in serious storms like that."

I paled. Was she talking about the same storm I had been caught in that very first night?

"Winry," I said slowly. "Do you know who I am?"

"Oh, and your bike had a few problems, so I took it out back to fix it up," Winry said with a nervous smile. My stomach dropped another inch.

"Winry, are you even listening to me?"

"The brakes for the back tire aren't working," Winry continued.

"Winry…"

"And there were some dents and stuff…"

"Winry, who am I?" I snapped at her. She looked at me with bewildered eyes. I sighed and felt my hands clench. "What's. my. name," I growled at her.

"I-I-I don't know," she stammered. "I only took you in off the streets because you could have died otherwise. I didn't ever learn your name!"

I bit my lip and held back a wave of emotions. Winry didn't remember me. If _she_ didn't remember me, did Ed or Al remember who I was? I took a deep breath and tried to say as calmly as I could manage, "Can I use your phone?"

"S-Sure."

I lunged for the phone and grabbed the receiver and pressed zero in the same instant. Something was screwed up and I wanted some sort of… _direction._

"Hello, operator, how may I help you?" I jolted at the voice and clenched the phone closer to my ear. It felt like the one string I had left that was keeping me from completely losing it.

"I need to be connected to military headquarters in Central," I babbled. My words clicked in my head after a split second, and I added a "please." It usually helped to be polite with those sort of people, as far as I knew.

"Hold please."

"Thanks so much," I breathed. The phone fell silent. I remembered back to the first time I had used Winry's phone and had felt awkward at the fact that there had been no soft music while I had waited. I had grown much more accustomed to Amestris in the time since that first call.

I chuckled bitterly. If any time had passed at all since that first call. Was I in some sort of loop like in _Groundhog Day_? Or was I just having the same dream over and over and none of this FMA stuff was real at all?

"Hello, Central Military Command, how may I help you?" I nearly cried in relief at the voice. I felt so lost, I needed something to be able to hold on to.

"Is Edward Elric there?" I said, biting my lip. The woman fell silent, and I could hear a slight rustling of papers.

"No, he is not," the woman said after a minute. "I've been told that he's currently out conducting research," she added. "Do you want me to take down a message to give to him once he returns?"

I bit my lip. I could remember the last time the woman had asked me that same question, and I had fumbled for words at the time. I hadn't known what I could have said to Edward Elric, of all people, especially when I didn't actually know what he was like in person.

"Um… tell him that Rebecca called and that I'm currently staying with Winry and I would really like to hear from him," I said slowly. Even if he didn't seem to remember me like was the case with Winry, I figured he'd at the very least be concerned or curious by the mentioning of Winry's name.

"I'll give him the message," the woman said in a more motherly tone than I remembered from the last time I had called. "Is there anything else I can do for you?"

"Um… could you connect me to Colonel Roy Mustang?" I said hesitantly. If he actually did remember me, he wouldn't be very… warm and fuzzy over me calling. But at least he'd be someone who would know me if he _did_ remember.

"I'd be happy to, dear," the woman said. I frowned and blinked in surprise. She was definitely more motherly and warm than she had been last time. "But first I'm going to need your last name and the code for calling from an outside line, or I can't do anything."

"My full name is Rebecca Jacobson, and the code is uncle, sugar, olive, eight, zero, zero."

"Just a minute, dear," the woman said. I swore I could hear her smiling. Sheesh. What had changed so much from the last time I had called? Just the fact that I left a message for Ed?

"Hello? Who is this?" I heard Roy say after a minute. I sighed in relief.

"It's Rebecca Jacobson, sir," I said nervously. I wasn't sure whether he honestly didn't remember me or if he was simply giving me the cold treatment. "We met a couple times before? I'm a friend of Ed's."

"You are? Is Fullmetal alright?" I felt my heart sink. He really didn't remember me.

"I… I'm sure he is, sir. I haven't been able to contact him, but he's… he's smart. He can take care of himself."

Roy sighed. The picture of him in my mind that I knew from the manga and anime was rubbing worriedly at his brow. "Why are you calling me?"

"I… I happened to get caught in a storm, sir. I'm staying with a friend of Ed's at the moment, but… I need… help." The last word came out as a whisper. I licked my lips and clutched at the phone with both hands.

"Alright, Rebecca. You're staying with Winry then, correct?"

"Y-Yes," I stammered. "How did you…?"

"Fullmetal doesn't have many 'friends,'" Roy chuckled. "I'm actually surprised he has you for a friend. I would have thought I would remember you if you had been introduced as Fullmetal's 'friend.' But that's not the point. I'll see what I can do and I'll call you back when something comes up."

"Yes, sir," I said with a sigh and a small smile. It felt loads better to know someone would be out there trying to help me. I started pulling the phone away slightly, figuring that was about the end of the conversation.

"And Rebecca?"

"Yeah?"

"Don't get killed. Edward will hold me responsible if you do."

The phone cut off with a click. I blinked at the phone for a minute before my lips twitched into a smile and I started chuckling. Roy was right, Ed would hold him responsible if I died, but it almost felt like there had been more to it like that. Like he had been trying to tell me not to die because he wanted to protect Ed from more hurt.

Not that it would matter if Ed didn't remember who I was.

I shook my head and tried to shove that thought out of my head. I didn't want to think that. There was still one person I wanted to try calling before I was allowed to start feeling helpless. I took a deep breath and pressed zero again.

"Hello, operator, how may I help you?"

"I'd like to be connected to the residence of Ma—" I paused, remembering that Hughes would be dead if things had really reverted back to how they had started. "Er… Gracia Hughes, please."

"Hold please."

I sighed and drummed my fingers against the wall while I waited in silence for the phone to connect.

"Mr. And Mrs. Hughes are out with their daughter right now, what do you want?" a familiar voice snapped into the phone. A very familiar, exasperated, and maybe even hurt voice said. I took a breath and tried to make sure I actually spoke.

"Ed?"

The breathing on the other side of the line stopped abruptly. I bit my lip and closed my eyes. I had hoped that if he was at the Hughes house, at least _he_ would know who I was. I needed him to remember me. But maybe that instinctive feeling that he would remember had been wrong. At least I had been right in my guess that he had still been there.

A long silence passed over both of us before Ed finally let out a long sigh.

"It doesn't do us much good to stay silent when we can't see how the other is reacting," he finally said. "Where are you?"

My eyes widened as I stared at the phone. He _had_ recognized my voice? With just one single word? More important than that, he actually _remembered_ me?

"Ed?" I whispered again. He let out a bitter chuckle.

"Yeah, Ray, it's me. I can't… I can't believe how relieved I am to hear you. No one else remembers you. Al was looking at me like I was nuts. What's going on? Where are you?"

"I'm at Winry's place. She doesn't remember me either," I said, clutching the phone to my ear. I was aware of Winry watching me talk on the phone, but I didn't care. I felt like I could relate way too strongly with how Ed was feeling. It felt wonderful just to hear his voice.

"Winry's? How did you get there? You were just sleeping here last night. You didn't… you didn't wish for all of this, did you?" I frowned and reached back into my memory. I could remember falling asleep with a warm feeling at the thought of Ed being just a few footsteps away from me across the hall, but I couldn't remember any wishes.

"I… I don't think so," I whispered. "I sure don't remember wishing anything like that."

Ed sighed heavily, and we were both silent for a minute.

"Alright, Ray, how about this. We'll get back together and try to figure out what's going on, alright? I'll meet you halfway. You know where Teacher's house is; let's go there. I'll be able to make that seem normal enough to Al without any problems."

"Okay," I said softly with a grin. Everything felt better with Ed taking control of the situation.

"You get on the first train out there, and I'll do the same?"

"I sure will," I said, my grin widening. It was funny how I felt so good in such weird circumstances.

"And Ray, I…" Ed trailed off with a croak in his voice. "I think I… Never mind. I'll tell you when I see you face to face." I frowned. He had something big he wanted to tell me, I knew that just from the way he was talking, but he still wasn't telling me.

"Ed? Is something wrong?"

"Nah, I'm fine," Ed said with an obvious gulp. "It's just… it's not bad news. I'd just prefer to say it to your face when I say it, alright? Please don't worry about it, Ray."

"Okay," I said with a lick of my lips. I just hoped he would tell me soon. I didn't like things left hanging. "See you soon then?"

Ed sighed. "I guess. But for the record, I hate hanging up on you. I'm scared I'm going to end up losing track of you again."

"Me too." I wanted to be able to make Ed feel better about that, but I wasn't sure what I could say.

"Don't worry, Ray, I'll be fine," he said, putting on a fake cheerfulness. "Sometimes you just have to take a leap even when the fear is there."

"Right."

"So I'll see you as soon as I can, alright, Ray?"

"Alright. Seeya. Take care of yourself."

The phone cut off with a click. I sighed and hung up before looking back over to Winry. Her blue eyes were huge, and I almost swore I could see her trembling in place.

"…Rebecca?" she said after a minute. I nodded my head. "And you know the Elric brothers too?" I nodded again. Winry paused and frowned, looking away from me for a minute. After a shake of her head, she sighed and looked back at me.

"You know, I just had the weirdest feeling of déjà vu," she said. I snorted and rolled my eyes.

"You have no idea."

* * *

I sat on the train fidgeting with my hands. It felt like I had been on the train forever, and I still had loads more time to go. I couldn't remember the first time I had been on the train being so nerve-wracking, but I also hadn't known I was riding the train just to meet up with Ed. And I may have fallen asleep too. I couldn't remember.

I wanted to be able to fall asleep on that train ride, but my mind was so full of worry that there was no chance at all of me being able to do it. I sighed and rested my head against the windowpane. I just couldn't handle being away from Ed so long.

I frowned and licked my lips. That thought did _not_ sound good in my head. I couldn't handle being away from him? Maybe it was tough to be away from any good fiend, but usually I thought I was at least able to _handle _it.

How did we get to be such good friends in such a short amount of time, anyway? My frown deepened. I had always thought that Ed was unapproachable, that he isolated himself from everyone because… because he was afraid of hurting them or something. Him becoming close friends with someone in a short amount of time seemed ridiculous. And someone he had been so suspicious of at first, at that. It didn't sound like the sort of thing that happened in real life, it sounded like… like… well, a fanfic, honestly.

I shook my head. Oh, no. I was not going to let my thinking start venturing down that path. I knew where fanfics with OCs led. Heck, I had _written _a couple of them! And I was _not_ that sort of girl. The FMA OC girl Ed always fell for was always _so_ athletic, and she always had such a hot head, or fiery temper, or whatever you called it, not to mention the biggest criteria I didn't fit, she was pretty. I could never be an OC from one of those crazy EdxOC fics. And I didn't want to hurt myself by starting to think I might be and only getting hurt when I found out it wasn't true.

I couldn't be one of those FMA girls. They were amazing. It was easy to understand Ed falling in love with _them_. I was just ordinary.

Well… besides my freakish wishing powers.

I sighed and closed my eyes, trying to remember where my train of thought had been before it wandered down the path of trying to convince myself I wasn't some OC.

Oh yeah. Ed. I winced. I knew what I was thinking, but I didn't want to admit it to myself.

I had a crush on him. A deep, _deep_, throw-me-over-the-cliff-because-I'm-doomed crush on him. I had only had one of those crushes before, and it hadn't turned out well. I'd had a crush on Joe for about five years before _he_ actually asked _me _out. And only once I had met Ed had I started needing to come to grips with the fact that the real Joe I had met in my relationship with him was nothing like the amazing Joe I had dreamed about for five years.

But Ed wasn't perfect. I knew that. He was amazing, sure, but he had a temper like no one else, he wasn't… ah… exactly the right height I had ever imagined for my perfect guy (I had always wanted someone a couple inches taller than me, which is a tough order to fill when you're a tall-ish girl anyway), he hid his feelings from people, he had a tendency to mope… the list went on and on.

But each "flaw" I could think of didn't entirely feel like a "flaw" to me, it felt like… just part of Ed. It was who he was. I wouldn't want him to stop being hot headed. And if he were freakishly tall, the guy would lose some of his charm, though a few inches wouldn't really _hurt_… But him being two or three inches taller than me seemed nuts. He could be maybe one inch taller than me, but mostly I wanted him to be close to equal height with me. His shortness was just… what I saw as part of him.

I grinned. But I was never going to tell that to Ed.

I sighed and pushed myself back to my original train of thought. So I had a deep crush on Ed. But just the way it felt made me think it was a way different crush than the one I'd had on Joe. Joe had been so perfect and amazing in my eyes, and he was up on some sort of pedestal. Ed wasn't on any sort of pedestal. He was just… amazing in a… normal way.

But still, it was a crush on Ed, all the same. And that was not good. Crushes on Edward Elric were fine and dandy if you were some OC in a fanfic, because then it always worked out anyway, but crushes on Ed in real life just weren't the same. My life wasn't some sort of perfect fanfic. It wasn't going to all just "work out." There were going to be problems. One of them being that Ed had rejected pretty much every girl who had ever had a crush on him. Who was I to hope that I would suddenly be the one to break the rule?

I sighed again. But I wanted so _badly_ to just break that rule anyway.

"No," I muttered to myself at the thought. I couldn't think about how badly I wanted to be with Ed. Then I could end up wishing for it and manipulating and pulling him in ways I didn't want to. Ed was wonderful as himself, not as whatever Ed I could mold him to be.

I couldn't _let_ myself have a crush on Ed. I couldn't do that to him. I liked Ed as he was, not whatever perfect man I could make him.

"Now arriving at East City station!"

I sighed and stood up. I had to get off the train at East City because there weren't any trains that ran directly from Reisenburgh to Dublith. It was annoying, and I kept worrying that I would somehow screw it up, but it still had to be done. The train inched to a crawl, and I jumped off at the first moment I could. I was itching to get to Dublith to see—

No, not allowed to let yourself have a crush on Ed. I sighed and licked my lips. I was itching to get to Dublith because… I wanted to find out what had caused everyone but Ed to lose their memories of me.

I sighed and looked at the train schedule posted on the wall. There were trains going in all sorts of directions from East City. But the one going to Dublith wouldn't come for another hour. I sighed. Lovely. Even more time I needed to kill.

I wasn't exactly sure where my feet were dragging me at first, but I soon found myself out on the streets of the city, casually looking around at the buildings around me. Central had been easy to adapt to since I had been in big cities like that back in my own world. Granted, it was a lot shorter than the cities I was used to that were filled to the brim with skyscrapers, but it had still had a lot of the same feel to it. East City felt a lot different. It almost felt like… like some city that was trying to be big but was stuck at some dead end. I stifled a chuckle. The poor little city.

The shops at least seemed nice though. I glanced in almost all the windows I passed by, but I didn't walk into any of the shops. It almost felt as if I were walking with a purpose, even though I was just killing time. But somehow my feet still had a mind of their own, and I just didn't have the time to dally around in silly little shops when I had no money.

And then my feet suddenly stopped. I had reached wherever it was I had been going to. I sighed and looked up.

Then I froze. I recognized the building in front of me. East City Headquarters. It was a huge white building with a waterfall of steps leading up to it. I could definitely remember it from the manga. Ed had sat down and cried on those same steps after Nina had died.

I frowned and shook my head. I had been positive that building was in Central, though I had never seen any building similar to it. The East City Headquarters was pretty grand looking, but it was nowhere near as showoffy as the Central Headquarters was. The Central Headquarters reached up for forever and had that huge state alchemist symbol on it. I honestly liked the Eastern Headquarters better.

"You have to let me in! I'm Edward Elric!"

My eyes widened at the shout and I looked in the direction the yelp had come from. Why would Ed be in East City when we were supposed to meet in Dublith? Had he realized I would need to stop in East City and had decided to just go there instead?

"Sorry, kid, no watch, no admittance."

"But—! Wait!"

My heart sank when I saw the face of "Edward Elric." It was really none other than Russell Tringham himself, still trying to pull off his copycat routine. I sighed and rubbed at my forehead. I could either help him, or get him arrested. Or I could just ignore him and walk by without doing anything.

But then again, having Russell Tringham owe me one did seem like a pretty sweet deal… I sighed and rolled my eyes before putting on a huge smile.

"Ed! Hey, Ed, over here!" I called out, waving at him wildly. Russell and the officer both turned to look at me with stunned expressions. I almost laughed before running over Russell and grabbing his arm.

"Remember me, Ed?" I said, trying to pull off the cute and adorable character as best I could. Russell stared at me with one eyebrow raised.

"Honestly? No. Not one bit," he said, trying to shrug out of my grip. I held back a sigh and roll of my eyes. Here I was trying to help the dummy and he didn't think to play along? Sheesh.

"Oh, don't be silly," I said with a grin as I batted his arm. I turned to look at the officer in front of Russell and me. "Ed here is such a kidder. We go way back. We used to go to school together when we were just little kids. We grew up together." The officer looked at me like I was nuts. I took the opportunity to wish desperately that there were a State Alchemist watch in my pocket. I turned back to look at Russell.

"Oh, Eddie, I'm so glad I caught you," I pressed, holding back a wince at the nickname. "You left your watch thingy at my house last night before you left. I've been trying to bring it back to you all day, but I had no idea where you were." I reached into my pocket and sighed in relief when my fingers closed around a round piece of metal. We would have both been in trouble if I didn't have the watch I said I did. I grabbed the watch and held it out to Russell. His eyes widened at the sight and he grabbed it almost instantly.

"Yeah, yeah, of course I remember you!" he babbled quickly and then turned to the officer. "We grew up together. We know each other like the backs of our own hands! I just like pulling her leg now and then!"

"Yeah, he knows his Becky will always be watching his back," I said as I held back laughter. Russell was a pussycat once he was shown that you had the power to give him what he wanted.

"Yeah, my good friend Becky brought me my watch, so let us in already," Russell said with a smirk as he held out the watch. The officer seemed a bit dazed, but he still opened the metal gate and stood aside. I kept holding on firmly to Russell's arm as he walked inside.

"Look," I hissed at him. "I'm not sure exactly what you're doing, but I'm friends with the _real_ Edward Elric, and I know just what you're pulling, Russell."

"I thought as much," Russell hissed back while gripping my arm just as tightly. "What I want to know is how you managed to get your hands on a pocketwatch when there's only one child State Alchemist in history. Did you steal this from your good _friend_ Edward?"

"Not on your life. Where exactly are we going, anyway?"

"The military library. And I'm not letting you out of my sight until I'm done with my research."

I groaned. So much for seeing Ed soon. It was going to be a long day.

* * *

"Rebecca. Reeeebeeeeccaaaa… Hey, Rebecca!"

I fluttered my eyes open and blinked at the golden blob in front of me. Something about that blob seemed way too familiar. I frowned and narrowed my eyes to try to shift them into focus. When they finally did shift, I realized that the golden blob was really just a familiar boy with a head full of golden hair. I grinned at him, and he grinned back.

"Hey, Ed."

"Hey, sleepyhead."

I snickered and stuck my tongue out at him before sitting up straighter and stretching out my limbs. I felt like someone had been dancing on my back. I stared at Ed for a minute, and then something clicked into place in my brain.

"Hey, wait, how did I get to Dublith already?" I said with a frown. Ed mimicked my facial expression in reply. "I mean, I was at the library with Russell, and then you were going to meet me at Dublith because no one remembered me, and…"

"Whoa, slow down," Ed said as he touched his hand lightly to mine. He then jerked away, apparently surprised that my hand had been where he expected table to be. "No one forgot you, Rebecca. It must have been a dream."

I blinked. A dream? But I almost always knew a dream was a dream after I woke up. And that had felt real, not like a dream.

"Hey, don't look at me like that," Ed said with a chuckle. "It sounded like it wasn't a pleasant dream. I mean, Russell Tringham? And no one remembered who you were? How could anyone forget you, Rebecca?" I snickered. It was easy to feel better when Ed was right there.

Wait, no, I had decided that I wasn't allowed to have a crush on Ed.

But that had been part of my dream. And he was sitting there grinning at me like a schoolboy anyway. It couldn't be that bad if I just let myself have a little bit of a crush on him, could it?

I frowned. But even if it was a dream, I thought that I had been thinking pretty clearly when I had decided that a crush on Ed was simply not allowed.

But… he was Ed. And he was right there, smiling at me…

"Rebecca, is something wrong?" Ed said. He touched his hand to mine again, only this time, instead of jerking away, he grabbed my hand in his and squeezed. I took in a shaky breath. Not being allowed to have a crush was getting harder and harder by the second. Why did he have to be so charming, anyway?

"Ed…"

"Look, Rebecca, there's been something nagging at my mind for a while," Ed said with a sigh. He leaned in a fraction of an inch closer so that our noses were just an inch from each other. His warm breath tickled at my cheeks. I tried to close my eyes in concentration. I wasn't allowed to have a crush on him… but he wasn't exactly making that easy to do.

"Rebecca, I've… I've been thinking about it for a while. I can't… I can't stand the thought of you not being by my side. I… you're not like any other girl I've met. I… I think I love you," he whispered, squeezing my hand again. I opened my eyes in surprise and found myself staring into a pair of pleading golden eyes.

I wasn't allowed to have a crush on Ed.

But that was only because I would get hurt when he wouldn't choose _me_. But he was already choosing me anyway. So the rule was kind of stupid to keep.

But he was still too good for me.

But… I still wanted to never let go of his hand.

I bit my lip. It wasn't fair.

"Rebecca? Please, say something. Anything, Rebecca."

"I… I… I… I don't know, Ed." I stammered out, closing my eyes again.

"What do you mean you don't know? Just say you love me too," Ed whispered, leaning in even closer. I felt his nose press against mine. "I know you want to say it, Rebecca. I know. Just say it. Say 'I love Edward Elric.'"

"I love Edward Elric."

The words came out before I could stop myself. I snapped my eyes open and stared at Ed. He was smirking at me. I frowned. Something felt… wrong. Ed had been calling me Rebecca, but all he ever called me anymore was Ray, and he was actually openly admitting to his feelings, and he had made me say "I love Edward Elric" instead of "I love you" and he was okay with holding hands and touching noses and… Something was wrong, very wrong.

"I knew it," Ed chuckled before standing up and jerking me to my feet with him since he was still holding on tightly to my hand. Actually, he had moved his position so he was more of holding my wrist than my hand. I frowned. When had he moved his hand?

And then I felt tingles run through my body, starting at the hand Ed was holding and spreading out like a wave. I froze and stared at him and his skin rippled and changed until there was none other but Envy standing in front of me with a pleased smirk on his face.

"I knew it," Envy said with a smirk as he tightened his grip on my wrist. "I knew you were in love with the little pipsqueak. And now I know just how to get you."

I jerked my hand out of Envy's grip and stared at him. Something still felt wrong. Something about the situation just felt… off, somehow. Envy cracked his knuckles and kept staring at me.

"So the little human catches on fast," he said, his voice changing. I felt my breath hitch. It wasn't a very pleasant voice to listen to. It sounded more like a handful of voices meshed together into one body instead of just one voice on its own. I stared at Envy as his body rippled and changed yet again, this time leaving… nothing.

Well, it was stranger than that. It was like a patch of nothingness so pure that it became something, in a weird way. Like there really was _nothing_, not even air, and that somehow made some sort of human-shaped distortion where the _nothing_ was. I shuddered. I knew exactly what the _nothing_ was. Truth.

Truth stepped closer to me. My automatic response was to take a step back, but my feet locked in place. The _nothing _in front of me gave off a feeling that made me feel like it was smirking at me.

"_Tell me, little human, would you agree when I say that most people say that a wish coming true is like magic?" _

I felt like I was frozen. I didn't know how to respond, or what point it was trying to make, or anything. The only response I could manage was a weak nod of agreement.

"_So, little human, can you define magic for me?" _

I blinked. I wasn't sure how to pull that one off. When I heard the word magic, my instantaneous response was to think of things like Harry Potter or Sabrina the Teenage Witch or some similar concept. I had no idea how to define it. The feeling of the nothingness in front of me changed to what felt more like it was scowling or hissing at me.

"_Magic, you pathetic being, is when you ignore the laws of equivalency! Magic is when you go behind _my_ back and break _my_ rules!" _

I yelped. My skin suddenly felt like it was burning, or like I was covered in venomous spiders that were all biting my skin. I clutched at my head and fell to the ground on my knees as if I were practicing some sort of weird tornado drill.

"_All these years you've avoided me, time after time again you've slipped out of my grasp, and I won't stand for it anymore! Look at you! You used to be as powerful as me, and now you're a pathetic sniveling little _human_! We used to be the rulers of the land and you gave me up for that pathetic Edward! And you think you can still do whatever you please and never pay the price?" _

I felt a cold cackle of power grab my collar and yank me to my feet again. The burning pain stopped, replaced by a numbness that left me paralyzed. I stared at Truth with wide eyes. Then it lifted me even higher so that we were eye to eye and my feet no longer touched the ground. I shivered and shook my feet in wild circles. I had an awful fear of heights, even if it was barely a foot of the ground. I really didn't like not being able to feel the ground under my feet. The feeling in front of me changed so that it felt as if Truth were smirking again.

"_But I finally got you, little human. You finally paid your price. You gave all your memories of dear Edward to me just because you thought it would save a few lives. Why do you care about those humans' lives? Why do they matter? It's in their nature to die. You've become weak. You're nothing like what you once were." _

And with that, I was thrown back to the ground on my butt. I stared up at Truth with wide eyes. I had no idea what it was talking about or what was going on. Its smirk got stronger.

"_You may never understand what I mean, little human, because you gave everything to me. Just as I once gave everything to you. I have all your memories, and I even have one more exchange for all your precious little magic. One more sacrifice to make the world equivalent again." _

"What?" I whispered. I jumped at the sound. I hadn't even expected myself to be capable of making any noise around Truth.

"_I've got _him_."_

I looked behind Truth and saw Ed standing there, watching me with his arms folded across his chest. I jumped up and tried reaching for him, but it felt like my eyes were getting teary and making it hard to see. I closed them to try and clear them so I knew where to reach for Ed.

And when I opened them again, I was back at the library in East City. Russell had an open book clenched in his hands and was staring at me with his mouth slightly open.

"Are you… alright?" he said slowly, laying down the open book on the table and staring at me. "You… you fell asleep and then… What _happened_?"

I took in a long breath and then stared down at my hands. I was shaking uncontrollably. I opened my mouth to say something, but all I managed to whisper was, "I'm cold."

"I'd imagine," Russell muttered. "You have icicles on your eyebrows."

I reached up to touch my eyebrows, and flinched away when I felt the cold material there. I looked back at Russell. He was staring at me as if I were a freak. Then again, maybe I was a freak. I was able to get anything I simply wished for without paying anything in return. I felt a tear squeeze out of my eye and slide down my cheek. It felt like it was boiling compared to how cold the rest of me felt.

Truth was right. I had ignored the laws of Equivalent Exchange with my wishes, laws that not even the Elric brothers were allowed to sneak past. And I had to pay for all I had received at some point. Now no one but Ed remembered me.

And as if that weren't enough, Truth was right about something else. Ed would never be mine, no matter how much I wanted him.

I laid my head down on the table and tried to stop my tears from flowing.

* * *

_**Lesson of the Day—Amestrian Train System**_

Well, I'm sure you all know that the train system in Amestris happens to be veeeery convenient, since trains are a pretty big part of the FMA story and seem to be just about the only form of transportation the Elric brothers use.

But oi, when you look at a map, then things start getting difficult. It seems that the manga and the anime don't like to show us just how often those two must be flipping from one line to another.

So, look at zee map. Resembool shows no lines connecting it from one town to another, but we've seen Ed and Al get on trains in and out of Resembool all the time, so there has to be lines out to somewhere. Alright… uh… well, East City is not very far at all from Resembool, so that seems pretty likely. And whoohoo, there's a line connecting East City to Dublith, so that should work out.

Now when it gets really tricky is if you wanted to go from, say, Rush Valley to Youswell. First you get on a train from Rush Valley to Dublith, then from Dublith to East City, then East City to New Optain, THEN you finally get on a train to Youswell. Ai.

Pretty interesting to figure out though. But then again, I'm a bit of a nerd.

Lolz.

* * *

_**Author's Note: **_

I love the irony of Rebecca telling herself there's no way that she could _possibly_ be the OC in an FMA manga. Ha ha ha, yeeeah, take a look around, kiddo.

And yes, Russell has not explained what he's researching or why or where Fletcher's hiding at, but that's because he's planning to explain next chapter, so nyah! Whaaaat, you guys didn't seriously think I'd be able to keep the Tringhams completely out of the story, did you? Did'ya?

Hope you guys like the chapter, sorry this one took foreeeeeeverrrrr, but… yeah. Circumstances got in the way of things. –sigh-

**P.S. **I lost my flash drive right after I finished this chapter. So I didn't post it for a while even though it was done. That was so annoying. But yay, my brother found my flash drive for me today!

* * *

_**Review Responses: **_

Uh…

No, yes, my mother did that once, yes, yes, yes, no, nah, yes, heck yes, yeah, and …please, no.

I just feel bad for not including these anymore. Maybe I'll make 'em return someday.


	19. Chapter 19

_**Chapter Nineteen – Concerning History, Beer and a Jacket**_

I rested my head on the table and glowered at Russell. He was reading some alchemy book and seeming quite content in his act of trying to pretend I didn't exist. Ever since I had woken up from my nap, he had been doing his best to ignore me in any way possible, and after an hour of the treatment, it was getting on my nerves.

After so long in silence and telling myself over and over not to think about Ed, I had even run out of thoughts to mull over. The silence was killing me.

"Are you going to talk to me?"

Silence. He didn't even glance up from his book. I took that as a no.

I sighed and buried my head in my arms. What else could I think about? There was always the really weird power of wishing to think over, but I had wanted to avoid that subject if at all possible. It made me uncomfortable to try and figure the infinite amount of power I had at my fingertips.

I groaned and shifted in my seat. No, it couldn't be infinite. There had to be a stopping point to my powers eventually. I couldn't just do _anything_.

Well, it did stop at some point. I had been able to bring Hughes back, sure, but it hadn't worked when I had tried to wish for Ed and Al to get their bodies back. But what sort of pattern was that, anyway?

I frowned and clenched my fists. The pattern was that there was something holding me back from _really_ wanting Ed and Al to get their bodies back. But I didn't know what it was. And it didn't make me feel any better about the whole infinite power thing, because then the only thing holding me back was that I couldn't get things I didn't actually want.

But then again, there had to be more holding me back. After all, I was sitting in a library with a silent Russell Tringham, and the only one in the world who remembered my existence was Ed, who happened to be the guy I had a crush on and was also miles and miles away from me. Couldn't I just wish that Russell would get up and leave me alone, that Ed would burst in the library and sweep me off feet while telling me that everyone had suddenly gotten their memories of me back?

I grinned to myself at the fantasy forming in my head. It sounded incredibly corny, but hey, I liked corny. Plus an easy corny solution sounded so much easier than the junk I was going through.

If that were the case, then why wasn't I getting my corny ending? I wanted it, I could easily wish for it, but I wasn't. What was holding me back?

I sighed heavily and rested my chin on top of my arms. Well, for starters, that wouldn't make a good story. But this wasn't some story I was writing, it was my _life_. Not taking the easy way out is all fine and dandy in stories, but easy ways out aren't a bad thing in real life.

I picked my head up again and stared at Russell.

I could do it. Right then and there, in front of the whole library. I could just make him disappear and have Ed appear in his place. Ed sounded like so much more pleasant company than Russell, and that was saying something.

I sighed and stood up, my chair scraping against the floor as I did so. I needed something to take my mind off things. This thinking hard about why I couldn't wish for what I _really_ wanted was starting to bother me.

I wandered aimlessly through the shelves of books, running my finger across the spine. I grinned and closed my eyes with a sigh. It felt good to be in a library and surrounded by books again.

I wasn't sure what sort of book I wanted to use to distract myself. I wasn't easily finding a fiction section in the library, since the library was mainly a resource for State Alchemists and other officials in the military, anyway. Besides, even if I were to find a fiction book, I wasn't sure that I would ever be able to look at "fiction" in the same way ever again.

Finally my fingers paused on a thick book that looked somewhat interesting. _A Condensed History of Amestrian Alchemy._ It didn't look very "condensed" to me, but I was willing to give it a shot. I pulled it off the shelf and carried it back to where Russell was sitting. He looked as if he had never even noticed me leave.

I set the book down on the table with a thump, making Russell look over for a brief second before he turned back to reading his book. I shook my head and sat down in my chair.

I paused as my fingers closed around the cover of the book. The only thing that stopped me from wishing for anything was that I couldn't wish for things I didn't actually want. I had only gotten somewhat minor wishes, no wishing for Ed suddenly falling in love with me, no Ed and Al getting their bodies back, no going back home…

Maybe I didn't actually know what I really wanted.

I sighed and tightened my grip on the book. I really didn't want to think about whether or not I had my dreams sorted out, especially not when I didn't have Ed around. Not that Ed would be much help in sorting out my dreams since I wouldn't want to tell him any of the conflict I was feeling. I sighed and opened the book to the first page.

I found myself getting lost in the book before I could help it. I didn't usually read nonfiction, but I was surprised that the history of Amestris read almost as if it were a fiction book. Which made sense, considering that FMA _was_ fiction in my world. Maybe nonfiction was only boring to me because I knew how all of it was supposed to happen before I started reading.

The book started by describing how when Amestris was just starting to become a country, an alchemist came from the East and used alchemy to make the country stable. After an alchemist having such an influential part in the forming of the country, alchemy became an important part of the country. The man who was said to have had such a large part in forming the country faded into legend.

Something about the story sounded strangely familiar to me, but I couldn't quite put my finger on it, so I decided to move on to the next chapter of the book. After all, Russell didn't look as if he were about to stop his research anytime soon.

My eyes nearly popped out of my head when the first words I saw on the next page were "Edward and Rebecca." I glanced up to check on Russell. Still completely absorbed in his book and trying to ignore me. I pulled the book into my lap and began sucking in the words as quickly as I could.

_Edward and Rebecca Ashvall were the next skilled alchemists on the stage. The couple is mostly widely known for refining the techniques used in alchemy to make it so that transmutation circles were widely used for all transmutations instead of chemicals. _

_When the government of Amestris was just beginning to form, Edward and Rebecca set out on their greatest project: creating a philosopher's stone. _

I sucked in air through my nose and clutched the book tighter.

_Actual proof as to whether or not they succeeded in creating a philosopher's stone is nonexistent. However, the newly established president Simon Wrankle became suspicious of the couple's actions and ordered a military search of their home. _

_When the military arrived at the young couple's home, the two had vanished. A search of the surrounding area was also conducted, but Edward and Rebecca were not found. _

_As the military officials called off the search, they were ambushed in the street by a child teen with black hair down to his waist. The one survivor of the military officials on the search said that the youth had purple eyes and said he was looking for his mother. _

"Wrath," I gasped, and dropped the book into my lap. It snapped shut and fell from my lap to the floor.

"What did you say?" Russell said, finally finding to seem it worth looking up at me to find out what was going on. I sucked in a quick breath and looked over at him.

"I—nothing," I said quickly. My brain felt like it was going faster that I could keep up with. "It was just… an absorbing book." Russell raised an eyebrow. I shrugged. I didn't feel like giving him an explanation that made proper sense. He thought I was crazy already, why bother?

"Oh," he said with a shrug, obviously not satisfied with the answer. He stared at me for another minute as if I were about to give him a better answer, but when I didn't give him an answer, he rolled his eyes and turned back to his book. I watched him for a minute to make sure he wasn't going to look back at me. When he seemed absorbed enough, I reached down and picked the book up off the floor and began flipping back to the page I was on.

_The child was accused of murder and pursued. Orders were given to shoot the child on sight. Military officials had a difficult time pursuing the child, and when they finally gained a lead on the child, he was trying to cross the border to Ishbal. _

_Military officials spotted the child within Ishbal and shot the child as ordered to do. _

"Out of their jurisdiction," I muttered before I thought about it. I then realized that I had said the words aloud and glanced up at Russell. He was still absorbed in his book, thankfully. I breathed a sigh of relief and turned back to the book.

_Further investigation revealed the child to not be the one officials had been searching for, but instead a young Ishbalan child. Military officials tried to explain the situation to the Ishbalans, but a commotion broke out and the Ishbalans killed the military officials out of rage. These actions led to the development of the first Ishbalan war. _

"First?" I said with a frown. The story sounded like it had a strong connection to the story I had heard from the manga of my world, but I had only heard of there being one war between Amestris and Ishbal. I looked back up at Russell.

"Russell?"

Russell sighed and set his book down. "What?"

"Was there more than one war with Ishbal?"

Russell looked at me as if I were crazy, but I was used to that look. After a minute, he sighed and flipped his head slightly as if he were trying to get his bangs out of his eyes.

"There have been wars on and off with Ishbal for centuries. Most of the time, all the wars get slapped together into one big war and counted together," Russell said with a sigh as he turned back to his book.

I glanced down at my own book. Well, at least that story seemed to match up with what I had read. I bit my lip and began reading again.

_In order to keep up with the war with Ishbal, the newly formed government decided to become more military focused in order to properly combat Ishbal. _

_In the middle of combat, Edward and Rebecca Ashvall are rumored to have made their dramatic reappearance, carrying the Philosopher's stone with them. No witness reports of the actual event exist, but all of the troops within Ishbal were destroyed in an entire night, along with most of the country of Ishbal. _

_The Ishbalans came to refer to Edward Ashvall as their god, Ashvalla and over time, his name evolved into the name Ishballa, after which the country is named. Ishballans say that they had become impure in their habits and that Ashvalla had come to cleanse their sins. They also say that all their people now carry Ashvalla's stone of destruction within their eyes as proof of their uncleanliness. _

"Whoa," I muttered as I stared down at the book. I had always loved the Indian legends that had tried to explain natural phenomena, and the Ishballan legends seemed very similar.

Not to mention the whole thought of almost an entire country disappearing in a single night. The story reminded me a little too strongly of the story of Atlantis from back home. There had to be some sort of reasonable explanation, but the story had merely gotten exaggerated over time, right?

The other thing that got to me was that I wondered how the story was known in the first place if there weren't supposed to have been any surviving any eye-witness accounts.

I frowned and stared down at the book in my lap. It just seemed to enjoy creating more questions for me to think about.

Across the table from me, Russell sighed and slammed his book shut and stood up.

"I've had enough of this," he declared and slammed his palms on the table. "I'm leaving."

I took that as a sign that it was time for me to leave as well. Good riddance. The book I'd found was interesting, but I'd had more than enough of it for one day.

* * *

The sun was setting by the time we got out of the library. I frowned and bit my lip. Was Ed in Dublith waiting for me? I glanced over at Russell. I could always try running for the train station and hope he didn't catch me before I got on a train out of there. Or I could even wish that he would release me from the prisoner status he had declared.

Heck, he had declared me a prisoner and I was just following along? That didn't seem right. I frowned and glanced over at him again. Russell was scanning the crowd in the street, no doubt looking for Fletcher.

I sighed and shook my head before looking away. I really didn't want to be with Russell. So why was I with him anyway? With my wishing powers, the only things that should have been happening to me were things I really wanted. So why was everything so crummy?

I was interrupted out of my thoughts by a laugh from Russell. I frowned and looked over at him. His eyes were focused in one spot, so I turned my head and looked in the same direction as him.

And then I saw what he had laughed at. In the middle of the street was Fletcher, waving at Russell and being followed by a rather surly looking Edward. I sucked in a shaky breath.

As if he had been able to hear me, Ed stopped and looked up at me. His eyes widened and he froze while Fletcher continued coming towards us. My head swam. What if he had stopped remembering me? What if he didn't think of me as a friend anymore? I tried waving nervously at him.

Ed stayed frozen for a minute before his face cracked into a grin and he waved back at me. He then started pushing through the crowd of people on the street, getting to be in front of Fletcher before he managed to get through the last of the crowd to stand in front of me.

"I knew I wasn't crazy," was the first thing he said. I laughed, and his grin widened even more.

Then something in my brain clicked, and I looked Ed over again. I was wearing my old tall boots, and he was still somehow half a head taller than me. I blinked and looked up—_up!_—at him again.

"Ed, did you… grow? A lot?"

I didn't think it was possible for his grin to get any wider, but he somehow managed it. He had such a huge grin that he almost looked like some weird interpretation of the Joker.

"Growth spurt," he said with a nod. While I continued to blink, Ed turned and looked over at Russell.

"Edward," Russell nodded. Ed nodded in reply. Russell then reached into his pocket and pulled out the silver pocket watch I had given him. "I think your little friend stole this from you," he said with a smirk as he held it out to Ed.

Ed's eyes widened as his hand flew to his pocket, and then he frowned in confusion as he seemed to realize his pocket watch wasn't actually missing. He turned to look at me with a frown. I bit my lip and looked at the ground.

"Nah," Ed said as I heard a small clink. "I told her to take it until we met up again. I've been… ah… using a fake watch in the meantime."

"I thought you were. But are you sure that she—"

"Brother!" a small voice shouted, and I looked up just in time to see Russell tackled to the ground by a happy little blur. "Did you finish your research? Can we—?"

"Fletcher, shut up! The book was nonsense, now get off me!"

I watched the two brothers struggle for a minute before I felt a hand wrap around my wrist and drag me backwards. I lost my balance for a minute before I managed to gain my footing again and start running to keep up with the hand holding me. I glanced up. It was none other than Ed, of course. He had a scowl set on his face. I bit my lip.

"Ed?" I asked. He shook his head as if to tell me to wait. I felt my lip wobble slightly before I regained control of myself.

Just as I thought my legs were about to fall off, Ed dragged me into a small inn and sat me down at a table. He then turned and asked a woman to get us two cold drinks before he turned his attention back to me.

"Sorry," he muttered. "Russell looked like he wanted to keep us there until he figured out everything about you, and I thought that you might not… How's your asthma?"

I stared at Ed and took in a few wobbly breaths. "I think my heart is worse off," I said with a cough. Ed frowned and leaned forward slightly.

"You sound horrible," he muttered. Just as I opened my mouth to answer, the woman Ed had spoken to earlier came to our table and put two drinks in front of us. Ed grabbed his and gulped some down immediately while I examined the glass.

It sure looked delicious. It looked as if someone had pureed caramels until they had turned into some sort of frothy drink. And I was thirsty after that run. Maybe it was better to just drink and ask questions later. I grabbed the drink and took a small sip.

I almost immediately spit it back out. I coughed and stared at the drink in surprise.

"What is that?" I said looking back up at Ed. He chuckled and shook his head.

"Well, any name I use for it is just going to confuse you," he chuckled. I continued to stare at him with big eyes. "Well, I'm sure there was something similar when I read that book about you. It was popular in that crazy country that you studied the language of…"

"Germany?" I said with a blink. Ed nodded. I frowned and sat back in my chair. Some cold brown drink that was similar to a drink in Germany…

My eyes nearly popped out of my head when I realized what he was referring to.

"Beer?" I yelped. "You bought beer? You're not even legal, Ed!"

He cocked his head to one side. "Legal? What does that mean?"

"It means you're not old enough to be drinking beer!" I hissed at him. "And neither am I!" Ed laughed and shook his head.

"If I wasn't old enough, they wouldn't have served it to me so easily," he chuckled. "The rules here are a little different than what you're used to. Besides, it helps when you're hot and sweaty. Just drink it."

I glanced at the glass again before looking back up at Ed with a scowl. "But…"

"It's up to you," Ed said with a careless shrug before turning back to his own glass. "But it's not like I'm going to take advantage of you if you get drunk or something."

I frowned and looked down at the glass. I hadn't even liked the taste of the beer that much. There was a nice sort of aftertaste, and I figured I would have liked the actual flavor alright if there wasn't actually alcohol in the drink, but the alcohol was too strong for my tastes. I shook my head and pushed the glass away from me. Ed chuckled and shook his head.

"Well, if you're not keen on alcohol, there's another drink I know of that tastes pretty good," he said, looking up from his drink.

"What?" I looked at him with narrowed eyes. I had never seen Ed as the guy always going out for alcohol from what I seen of the anime and manga, but the incident was making me more increasingly suspicious of Ed.

He smirked at me. "Can you trust me, Ray?"

"I don't know any more," I said as I leaned my elbows on the table. Ed rolled his eyes and shook his head.

"Look, you could tell that other drink was alcoholic, if I tried to get you drunk with some other drink, you'd taste it," he said, continuing to smirk at me. I sighed and rolled my eyes before nodding in agreement. He seemed to take that as approval of his choosing of my new drink, and he grabbed a passing waitress's arm and said something to her that I couldn't hear.

"So," he said as he turned back to me. He then reached into his pocket and put the silver pocket watch Russell had given him on the table between us. "Gonna tell me what happened to make Russell so suspicious of you?"

I bit my lip and looked down at the table. Just as I was about to start shaking my head, the waitress came back and placed a mug on the table in front of me. I glanced between the mug and Ed for a moment before I took it between two hands. It was warm. I glanced at Ed one last time before I finally lifted it to my lips and took a sip.

It was the deepest, richest hot chocolate I'd ever had, with a nice caramel flavor to it. I could feel the warmth of the drink settle in the bottom of my stomach as if it were a feeling instead of a drink. I set the mug back down and licked my lips with a grin. I glanced at Ed again. He was smiling from ear to ear.

"Now do you trust me?"

I grinned back at him and rolled my eyes. He chuckled and shook his head, then put his elbows on the table and tapped two fingers against the watch between us.

"So…" he said with a sigh. "What happened with Russell?"

I clenched my hands tighter around the warm mug of chocolate before biting my lip. I shook my head. I didn't want to tell Ed about how I had spent the day worrying if I would get to him, and having weird dreams that made Russell think I was crazy, and then spent the rest of the time reading weird stories in books about some couple with the same names as us.

"Ray." The soft tone to Ed's voice made me look up before I could stop myself. He was leaning towards me with a concerned look on his face. "Please tell me. I'm not going to hate you for it."

I licked my lips and stared at Ed for a minute before I sighed and hung my head. He looked so… worried, I had to tell him something. I could just leave out the bits about thinking about him all day and worrying about whether I'd get to meet up with him or not.

"Well, Russell was trying to get into the military library, and I ran into him and decided to help him out, so I wished for a pocket watch and pretended to be his friend returning it to him," I said. Ed frowned slightly and nodded. "So then he got suspicious of how I had gotten my hands on a pocket watch when there's only one genius child state alchemist—" Ed smirked. "—and then he decided to take me as his prisoner until he knew what was going on."

"Jerk," Ed muttered.

"You did the same thing to me," I said with a laugh. Ed rolled his eyes and shrugged.

"Anyway, I fell asleep while he was reading, and when I woke up, he pointed out that I had ice on my eyebrows, and I didn't answer him on how that happened, so he got more suspicious, and then he went outside to find Fletcher and you were there, and here we are." I finished the last of my words in one long string, hoping that Ed wouldn't ask me more about the dream.

"You had ice on your eyebrows?" Ed said with a frown. "What were you dreaming about?" I sighed and hung my head. Leave it to Ed to question me about the one thing I didn't want him to question me about.

"I had a dream where I… I was at the Gate and I talked to Truth," I said with a sigh after a minute. Ed's eyes widened.

"You talked to who? But you're not…" he trailed off and stared at my arms as if he suspected they would disappear any moment. "So you didn't go _in_ the Gate? What did… _it_ have to say?"

"I dunno," I muttered. "Something about wishes going against Equivalent Exchange and that I was going to pay for it."

Silence passed between us for a minute. I glanced back up at Ed. He had a deep frown set on his face. After a minute, he closed his eyes and slammed both hands on the table as he stood up, making my mug shake and spill slightly. The rest of the inn fell silent and stared at us.

"Ishte," Ed muttered. He then growled and kicked at his chair. "Ishte!"

He then began babbling in Amestrian so quickly that I couldn't make out any of the words he was saying, even if I didn't know what they meant anyway. Whatever he was saying, it sure didn't sound happy at all. I watched him pace and run his hands through his bangs repeatedly, all while he kept babbling in Amestrian. I glanced at the other people in the restaurant. It looked like even they couldn't understand what he was saying in their native tongue.

"Ed…"

He ran his hand through his bangs again and kept talking.

"Ed," I tried again. He still didn't take notice of me.

Then something in me snapped. I had been through a day where I had felt constantly rejected and shunned by Russell, and all I had been thinking about through the day was when I would be able to see Ed again, and when I finally did meet up with him, he was drinking alcohol and swearing in foreign languages. Why couldn't he just stop being so _Ed_ for a couple minutes and just give me a hug? I just wanted to stop feeling like I was alone.

I started crying before I could hold back the tears. I was crying so hard that I couldn't see the rest of the restaurant any more. Some where in the back of my mind, I realized that the angry talking in Amestrian had stopped, but I couldn't stop crying. No doubt Ed had noticed me. And I was doing the full ugly face cry. Great. I hated people seeing me cry. It made me feel so weak.

"Ray?" It was Ed's voice, but I couldn't see him. He sounded upset. "Ray, I'm sorry. I just lost control for a minute. I'm sorry. Please don't cry."

Yeah, right, that was going to make my tears magically go away.

I felt a hand on my shoulder. Ed? The hand squeezed my shoulder briefly before the thumb started rubbing gentle circles into my shoulder. I rubbed at my eyes and tried opening them through my tears to see who was trying to comfort me.

I managed to make out a somewhat blurry Ed crouching on the floor in front of me. I couldn't see much more than a golden blur that was his head, a flesh colored blob for his skin, and a big black blur for his body. I slid out of my chair so I was crouching the on the floor with him, and then buried my face in the top part of the black blur. It felt like a shoulder.

Ed was silent for a minute before I felt two hands settle on my back.

"It's okay, Ray," he muttered, and I thought I could feel his cheek against the top of my head.

He was hugging me. Actually hugging me, and I wasn't in some dream, and I hadn't even wished for it. My own actions had led him to know I wanted a hug, and he was actually hugging me on his own. My tears started to die down and I sniffled.

"That's okay, I've got plenty more jackets where that came from," Ed chuckled. I let out a wet giggle. Ed pulled back and put both hands on my shoulders.

"Was that a laugh I heard?" he said with a small grin. I giggled again. I felt a bit like a foolish child with the way I was behaving, but Ed didn't seem like he was condemning me for it.

Ed grinned back at me for a minute before he sighed and pulled me back into a hug again.

"I'm sorry, Ray," he muttered. "I didn't mean to upset you. Don't worry too much about that dream, alright? Things will work out fine."

I nodded and buried my head in his shoulder. The first hug he had given me was for comfort, but the second one felt slightly… different. Or maybe I was just hoping for it to be different. I sighed and he pulled away from me.

"Are you okay now?" he asked me. I took in a slow breath and nodded.

"Alright, then what do you say to getting out of here?" he said as he stood up and brushed himself off. I nodded in agreement and started to push myself to my feet before Ed held out a gloved hand to me. I smiled up at him, took his hand, and let him pull me to my feet.

Which, believe it or not, was a big step for me. I never let people pull me to my feet when I was on the ground, not even my mom.

* * *

"So where is Al anyway?" I asked as I followed Ed down the street. He chuckled and scratched the back of his head.

"Well, it's kinda a long story," Ed said slowly. I crossed my arms across my chest to stay warm and kept following him. It was just starting to get dark out, and the night was starting to get chilly. Ed glanced over at me and frowned.

"Ray, are you cold?" he asked as he stopped walking. I stopped with him and licked my lips.

"No," I said slowly, and his frown deepened. "I'm fine."

"Why do you always do that?" he said with a scowl. I blinked and cocked my head to one side.

"Do what?"

"I'm sure that's at least the second time in the time I've known you that I've asked you if you're cold, and even if you obviously are cold, you always say you're fine. Why do you do that?"

"I…" I frowned. I hadn't even realized I did that. I could remember one time where Joe had offered me his jacket, and I had refused, and he had only asked if I was sure one more time before he dropped the subject and didn't bring it up again. He had never been insistent on it like Ed was. Ed rolled his eyes and pulled off his jacket.

"I'm fine, Ray," he practically growled at me. "They design clothes to give men more layers than we need anyway. If you're cold, just say so, and I'll give you my jacket. But I'm not going to beg for you to keep yourself warm."

I bit my lip and stared between Ed and the red jacket he held out to me. It felt so awkward to admit to wanting the jacket, even though I really wanted to just take his jacket. Even if I were warm I would have wanted to take his jacket.

Ed took my silence as a negative response, and jammed his arms back into the sleeves of the jacket before jamming his hands in his pockets and walking away. I stood still in the middle of the sidewalk and watched him, still biting my lip.

And then something hit me. Edward freaking _Elric_ was offering me his coat and I wasn't taking it? Was I crazy? I clenched my fists and hrried to catch up with him.

"Um… it's kinda cold out," I tried nervously when I had caught up with him. He didn't turn to look at me.

"Gee, I hadn't noticed," he muttered. I sighed and closed my eyes.

"I would really love your coat, Ed," I said slowly. My voice cracked a bit on the words. Ed stopped walking to turn and look at me again.

"Come again?"

I sighed and took a deep breath. "I… would really love it if you let me borrow your coat, Ed." I opened my eyes to look at him again. He was grinning and slipping his arms out of it. He started to hold it out towards me, but then jerked it back and stared down at the material.

"Do you want me to just give it to you, or do you want me to put it on you?" he muttered. I had to pay careful attention to his words in order to hear them properly. I then frowned and cocked my head to one side. I was used to old romantic movies where the guy put the coat on the girl he liked, but I was hanging out with Edward Elric. I wasn't in some old romantic movie.

"I…" I stumbled for words. "You can just give it to me, if you're more comfortable with that." Stupid. I internally winced at the words. I could have had Ed put his jacket on my shoulders, and I was telling him it was okay to just hand me the jacket.

"Alright." Ed sighed and hung his head. He then held the jacket out towards me. "Here."

I took the jacket and pulled it over both my arms, feeling the smell of the jacket was over me. I sighed and jammed my hand in my pockets.

"Thanks," I mumbled.

"No problem."

Had I just felt a weird vibe there, or did I only _want_ to feel a weird vibe there?

"So what happened to Al anyway?" I asked after a minute of silence. Ed chuckled and shook his head.

"Well, he's been upset with me a lot today since he can't remember you at all," Ed started. "He's close to snapping with me, actually. He doesn't like secrets very much at all. He thinks there's something terrible going on that I'm hiding from him, like that I don't love him anymore or something. So once we got to Dublith, I volunteered to go get Teacher some groceries and went to the train station to wait instead. And when you didn't show up, I figured you must have gotten delayed in East City, so I bought a ticket, and… well, I was right."

I chuckled and shook my head. I couldn't believe the great timing he'd had. I'd felt as if I were a damsel in distress being rescued. I smiled slightly and looked up at the sky. It had already gotten dark enough to start showing stars.

"Finally," Ed muttered, snapping me out of my thoughts. I looked back down again. We were back at the train station. Ed hurried over to a poster on the wall and sighed.

"There's no more trains tonight," he told me with a sigh as I dragged my feet towards the station. I hadn't realized how long a day it had been. I was exhausted. "We're just going to have to wait."

He sat down on a bench, and I followed his example and sat down beside him. Ed started talking about something, but it was washing over my head. I was too tired to absorb anything he was saying. After a while, my head drooped and landed against something soft. Ed chuckled.

"Ray, are you asleep?" he asked. I tried to at least make some sound of recognition, but my vocal cords didn't seem to want to cooperate with me. Ed chuckled again, and I felt an arm wrap around my shoulders.

"You know, Ray, when I woke up and found out that no one remembered you, I got so scared," he said softly. The gentle tone to his v oice made me slip closer to sleep.

"The last time I got scared like that, I was worried I had lost Al forever. And I… I dunno. I've gotten really close to you in a short amount of time. Closer than I'd like, really. Sometimes it just feels like I've known you longer than I really have. And… Well, I think that if it were you in Al's place, I'd sacrifice my arm all over again."

The was silence for a minute before he added. "Hell, maybe I'm thinking I'm closer to you than I really am, but I think I'd do it all over again if you were in mom's place."

"I just… I've been really confused recently, Ray. I think I'm kinda screwed with you. I mean, the colonel talked about meeting some girl that's just impossible to resist wanting to win over, but… well, I thought he was being smart-ass Mustang as usual, you know?"

"The truth is, Ray, I think I really like you. I don't know. But I'm too scared to ask if you would be willing to try and see if there's something more than just… yeah. I really don't think you like me like that. But really, I just wish you were my girlfriend so I could see what… What it's even like to _have _a girlfriend in the first place, I guess. I can't even know if my feelings are ever right or if I'm just inexperienced."

I sighed with a smile and shifted into a more comfortable position. I had already entered into dreams. It was nice to finally have a nice dream instead of something with Truth or burning cities in it. I heard Ed chuckle.

"I'd be too worried about you getting hurt with a guy like me for a boyfriend anyway," he said with a sigh. "Only your wishes come true. I'm not going to get any of my wishes. The universe is out to get me anyway."

He sighed heavily, and I felt a couple fingers rub at my shoulder.

"For what it's worth, I thought you were amazing before I knew about your powers," Ed whispered. "Call me a bad scientist, but maybe love at first sight really does exist. But anyway, goodnight."

I smiled and snuggled deeper into his shoulder. It was nice to finally have a peaceful dream after such a hard day.

* * *

_**Lesson of the Day: The Ishbal War**_

Well, I wrote this out literally the day before one of my friend's explained the war in a way that made a lot more sense to me. I was surprised to look back and discover that mine was actually pretty close to his, but I had to keep a few details changed in order to fit with some of my plot points.

Here's how his version of Ishbal goes:

Ishbal started out as land of Amestris. Then one of the countries surrounding Amestris went to war with Amestris and took the land for their own country. Everything was fine and dandy there until the people in Ishbal decided to revolt and broke away from their mother country.

Amestris then offered Ishbal statehood within their own country. They would be able to remain a relatively separate country, but still get the same benefits as other Amestrians. Ishbal agreed to the contract, and Amestrians entered Ishbal, and a mutation of red eyes spread rapidly after the introduction of Amestrian blood.

At the last minute, Ishbal decided to back out of statehood with Amestris. Amestris didn't take to that vey well, and sent troops over to Ishbal to take care of the problem. However, troops on either side of the border worried about whether they could kill people in a separate country or not, so both armies stood at a standstill for days, unsure of what to do.

After a while of that, an unknown shot was fired, leading both troops to begin firing at one another. A child was shot in the crossfire.

The war continued for a long time after that, sometime falling into times of relative peace before flaring up again. Most people were unsure whether to call it one or many wars. It finally ended when Amestris had nearly exterminated the entire Ishbalan race, and the Ishbalans surrendered. Their land became part of Amestris again.

I made so much more sense to me after that, lol. So I figured I'd pass it on.

* * *

_**Author's Note:**_

Can you see my college experiences already beginning to creep into my writing? Cough_beerscene_cough. I just started college about a week ago, and it's awesome! No, I haven't been drinking, sorry to spoil your fun, lol. (Though I did once do the same thing as Rebecca and spit out some very fancy champagne when they accidentally gave me that instead of sparkling grape juice at a weeding, haha.) I've actually been doing all my homework, and working a job, and just being downright awesome! -fistpump- I found myself surprised that I managed to find enough free time to clunk this out. Don't be surprised if my updates slow down a bit though, heh.

Is it a fluff chapter? I suppose so. Ugh. And such a loooong fluff chapter, at that. But I needed some good ol' fluff to cheer me up. And I hope you guys did too. Besides, there was some important information that's going to start out next chapter anyway. So it's not like it's a total waste, right?

Right? –whimpers-


	20. Chapter 20

_**Chapter Twenty – Concerning Boyfriends, Beatings, and Brothers  
**_

I woke up feeling sore. It was not a very pleasant way to wake up. What had I fallen asleep on anyway? I stretched myself with a groan and pulled back.

Ed was smirking at me. Oh. Whoops. I had fallen asleep on his shoulder. I glanced around with a frown. We were on the train. But I didn't remember getting on the train. Had I been asleep through that too? But then how would I have ended up on the train? Had Ed carried me on? My brain hurt. It was too early to be thinking so hard. I just wanted to go back to sleep.

"Good morning, sleepyhead," Ed chuckled. I blinked at him. "So are you finally going to join civilization again?"

I frowned. What? It was too early. I wanted to go back to bed. I sighed and went back to laying on Ed's shoulder.

"I guess not," he said softly.

The next time I woke up, someone was lightly shaking my shoulder. I frowned and pushed the hand away.

"Come on, Ray, we're going to need to get off in five minutes," I heard Ed say as he put his hand on my shoulder again. But I didn't _want _to get off in five minutes. I frowned and shook my head. Ed chuckled.

"Yes, we are," he persisted. I sighed and opened my eyes to look up at him. He grinned down at me. I groaned and closed my eyes again.

"Aw, come on, Ray, don't be like that. I don't want to be forced into carrying you again. If you don't wake up, I'll…" he paused for a minute as he tried to think up some suitable punishment for me if I didn't wake up.

And then he started singing. In Amestrian.

At first the sound made me start falling into a deeper sleep. After all, he had a great voice even when he wasn't singing, and he wasn't tone deaf, and he sounded even better when he talked in his own language, and he had managed to combine all those elements together.

And then the song repeated. And again. And again. Soon I realized that he was basically singing the Amestrian equivalence of "This is the song that never ends." I groaned and sat up. There was no way I could sleep through that once he got past the first three rounds. I sighed and motioned for him to stop.

Either he didn't notice me, or he was being cheeky. I rolled my eyes and tugged on his sleeve. He glanced at me with a grin and kept singing.

Cheeky then. I groaned. Well, I could be cheeky too. I reached out and slapped my hand over his mouth.

I realized as soon as I did it that it was a much more intimate touch than I had thought. Ed's mouth was pressed right against my hand, and I could even feel his cheek by my fingers.

He was warm. And wet. I panicked within my mind and pulled my hand away. He was smirking at me. I bit my lip and wiped my hand dry on my pants.

"Now arriving in Dublith," a voice cackled over the intercom.

"You woke up just in time," Ed grinned at me as he stood up. I scowled and stood up with him. I walked towards the door of the car while groaning and stretching out my muscles as best as I could.

I was so tired that I nearly tripped when I started stepping off the train. Ed barely managed to catch my elbow in time to stop me from falling. I blinked and looked up at him.

Wait a minute… I had fallen asleep on Ed, and he hadn't pushed me off or anything. In fact, he was being… well, a gentleman. Wasn't that supposed to be out of character for Ed? Not that I didn't like him being all nice and everything, but… He was always supposed to be rude and brash to people.

…Wasn't he?

"Thanks," I croaked. Ed let go of my elbow to scratch the back of his head. I felt my head spin a little. I had been staring at him. He probably thought I was weird. I winced and closed my eyes.

"Ed—"

"Ray—"

"Brother!"

Ed and I both spoke at the same time as a familiar voice echoed across the station. Ed made a sound as if someone had kicked him in the groin, and he grabbed my shoulder. I winced and squirmed, but he didn't seem to notice my discomfort at his tight grip.

"Ed—"

"Shit," Ed muttered. "He was pissed at me already for hiding things from him. Now he knows I snuck off. Shit. Damn it. _Fuck_." I winced. Even if he was upset, did he have to be _that_ vulgar? Normally I told my friends off if they started using the F-word around me (other swears I could tolerate), but then again, this was Ed. Even if I told him off, he'd keep swearing however he wanted to.

"Brother!" Al was waving and walking towards us.

"Do you think we still have a chance to hide?" Ed hissed at me. "We could always slip off and claim we lost him in the crowd when he eventually finds us." I sighed and looked over at Ed to see if he was joking. His face fell.

"Well, it was worth a shot," he muttered.

He was silent for another minute before he put both his hands on my shoulders and jumped to cower behind me. "I'm too young to die!" he whimpered while peeking his head slightly above my shoulder.

"Sheesh Ed, you act as if he were Izumi," I said with a grin. Ed's hands trembled on my shoulder.

"Well, Al can't compare to _her_, but he did learn some nasty tricks while we stayed there…"

I rolled my eyes and patted Ed's flesh hand resting on my shoulder. It felt like the most natural move to do. I felt Ed's hands stop shaking before he straightened up slowly. I frowned and turned my head slightly to look at him. He gave me a nervous grin before letting go of my shoulders.

"I just…" he frowned and started scratching the back of his head. "If Al does kill me out of anger for lying to him—"

"He's not going to _murder _you," I said with a chuckle.

"—I just… I just wanted to know that even if he _were_ to do that, it would have been worth it just to find you and know that I wasn't some crazy lonely freak who was creating imaginary friends for himself," Ed muttered, looking anywhere but at me.

Awww… I made Ed know for sure that he wasn't a freak. At least in the imaginary friend department.

…That was a good thing, right? I blinked a cocked my head to one side. It was the sort of nice thing that would only seem nice from someone as weird as Ed. I blinked and shook my head. It wasn't really worth analyzing though. He was just saying he was glad that he had found me and I existed.

Wait… I frowned. Ed was glad I had found me and that I existed. He was _glad_ that I _existed_.

I shook my head. Analyzing too far. That's reading too much into one little sentence. Besides, we had already somewhat established that we were friends, hadn't we? Wouldn't friends be grateful for the existence of one another anyway? I frowned and shook my head. It was too much to think about at once when I was still trying to clear my head from the nap I'd had on the train.

And then Al was standing in front of us with his hands on his hips. I had gotten so absorbed in my thoughts that I hadn't even noticed him approaching. Ed whimpered and took a step closer to me. After all, I was the person who could just wish that Al would leave him alone and it would happen. Of course he'd want me as his ally.

"Brother…" Al sighed. Ed winced and held up his hands.

"I know, I know! I lied when I said I was going to get groceries, and everyone's been worried about me, and I was wrong and irresponsible, but I had to, Al! I mean, first of all, Russell _Trigham_ had taken Ray as his prisoner, thought I didn't know that when I snuck away, but that's beside the point! You didn't remember her and she wasn't here yet, and I just… I _had_ to know whether I was going insane or not!"

I blinked at Ed. I had never even known that many words could be said in one breath.

"You don't have to keep lying," Al said with a heavy sigh and a roll of his eyes—which was interesting to see done, considering that he didn't exactly have pupils. "We would have all understood if you had just said that you and Rebecca wanted some alone time." Ed blinked and lowered his hands just as I frowned and opened my mouth to try and say something. Al was talking as if he knew exactly who I was. But… I thought that Al didn't remember me.

"You… remember Ray?" Ed said slowly. Al let out an irritated sigh.

"Of course I remember her! The first girl your brother ever dates is a little hard to forget!"

Ed and I both blinked and looked at each other for a minute before turning back to Al.

"Date?" Ed repeated numbly.

"Yes, _date_," Al said with another sigh. He sounded exasperated with Ed judging by all the sighs he was giving out. "You two have been going out for five months and you think I'd forget her?"

"Five months?" Ed yelped. "I haven't even _known_ her for five months!"

"Of course you have. Maybe _you're_ the one who's gone and gotten amnesia."

"Maybe," Ed muttered, shaking his head and pressing a hand against his forehead. Silence passed over the group for a minute. I opened my mouth. Maybe I'd finally get to sneak in a few words of my own.

"Did we both get amnesia or something?" I chimed in, and both boys turned to look at me. Okay… maybe not the _best_ choice of words, but I still didn't want to be left out of the conversation. "Because… I don't remember any dating or anything either." Ed scratched the back of his head and looked down at the ground while Al stared at me for a minute.

"Oh, I get it," Al said after a minute. He shook his head and turned to leave. "You two are weird with the games you play together. Well, Teacher's been worried, so we'd better get back there, whether you two 'remember' one another or not."

Al started heading in the direction out of the train station, leaving me and Ed to glance at one another with huge eyes.

"We haven't really known each other for five months, have we?" Ed said, his eyebrows scrunching tightly together.

"I don't think so…" I muttered before glancing back at the retreating figure of Al. "But he sure seems to think so."

Oh_, wait…_ I hadn't accidentally wished that Ed would be my boyfriend, had I? I frowned and tried to think. The only thing I could think of was that there was some faint memory from the night before, a dream or something similar. It had been me and Ed, just peacefully talking together.

"_The truth is, Ray, I think I really like you. I don't know. But I'm too scared to ask if you would be willing to try and see if there's something more than just… yeah. I really don't think you like me like that. But really, I just wish you were my girlfriend so I could see what… What it's even like to have a girlfriend in the first place, I guess…"_

I winced and tried to hold myself together. I had wished for it while I had been dreaming. There were a few choice words that sprang to the front of my mind, but I didn't say them out loud. Ed swore enough for the both of us, anyway. I tried my best to grin weakly and look up at Ed. He sighed and looked away.

"I guess we're boyfriend and girlfriend for now," he muttered before jamming his hands in his pockets and following behind Al. I winced and closed my eyes.

He really didn't want to be my boyfriend, did he? Ouch. But what else was I supposed to expect from Ed? He never wanted to be with _any_ girl, and I just wasn't any different.

I sighed and hurried to catch up with the two brothers.

* * *

"You should have—"

"Ow!"

"—told us—"

"Ow!"

"—where—"

"Ow!"

"—you—"

"Ow!"

"—were going!"

"Ow!"

"—your brother's—"

"Ow!"

"—been worried—"

"Ow!"

"—sick!"

"_OW!" _

Izumi had Ed cowering on the ground with his hands over his head while she continued to hit him between words for emphasis. She then turned to look at me. I felt my knees weaken slightly.

"You must be Rebecca," she said with a smile as she extended her hand towards me. "The boys have told me a lot about you."

"Ed's had a lot to say about you too," I muttered as I shook her hand with wide eyes. How could she switch so quickly from being brutal to being the welcoming hostess? And she didn't remember that I had had stayed at her house for days, but she remembered Ed and Al telling her about me? Boy, was that screwed up.

"Um, out of curiosity, what stories about me have Ed and Al told you?" I said slowly. I glanced over at Ed. He grinned and nodded in approval. He obviously wanted to know too.

"Later," Izumi said with a sigh and a wave of her hand. "It's time for lunch. We'll talk later." With that, she turned into the house, leaving me with Ed and Al. Ed turned to look at me with a bewildered look that mimicked what I was feeling. Ed then sighed and headed towards the house with Al. I bit my lip and hurried to catch up with him.

It was a bit strange to be back in the Curtis household after so long. The place was so familiar to me, and yet I hadn't been there in what felt like an eternity. I licked my lips and walked toward the kitchen-dining room… place.

Izumi was putting toasted sandwiches out on the table. I knew that normally the sandwiches would seem very appealing to me, with their melted cheese and crusty bread, but they didn't look appealing to me at _all_ right then. I didn't want to eat much of anything. I looked over at Ed, who seemed to be considering the sandwiches.

"Teacher," he said slowly. Izumi snapped her head up to look at him. "Ray and I need to… talk for a bit. Would it be alright if we just take a couple sandwiches and go somewhere else to talk?"

I stared at Ed with wide eyes. He was totally playing into the couple thing, even trying to get us time _alone_ together. I couldn't believe it.

"But you just got back!" Al protested as he stood up from him chair. "Didn't you two have enough time being alone together for a whole day?"

"Not really," Ed muttered as he scratched the back of his head.

"You can't just forget about the rest of the people who care about you just because you finally realized that girls are attractive!" Al huffed.

"That's not it!" Ed snapped back at him. I sank into one of the dining room chairs.

"Rebecca's not the only one who lo—"

"Enough!" Izumi shouted and slammed both her hands on the table. Ed and Al quivered and looked over at her. "You boys either stop arguing or take it outside! Or I'll make sure you two don't have enough of a body left to argue with!"

Ed shivered and then glanced over at Al. Al was sitting again, his arms crossed over his chest.

"Just go eat alone with your girlfriend, Brother," Al muttered. "It doesn't matter." Ed seemed to hesitate for a minute before sighed and grabbed two sandwiches with one hand.

"Fine," he muttered, before grabbing my wrist and dragging me out of the room. I squeaked in surprise, but still managed to keep up with him enough to not be dragged along the floor.

Ed finally stopped dragging me when we reached the same bedroom I had slept in the last time I had stayed with Izumi. I bit my lip and sat down on one of the two beds. Ed looked at me and snorted with a grin.

"You're sitting on my bed," he muttered, holding out a sandwich to me. I grinned with him as I remembered back to when we had first met. I took the sandwich from him, but didn't bite into it. I didn't feel hungry.

"It's my bed too, and I'm not getting off," I said, still grinning at him. Ed shook his head with a laugh.

"Then make room." He then sat down next to me on the bed, and then kicked off his shoes before pulling his feet onto the bed so he was facing me. I decided to do the same. He smiled faintly and took a bite of his sandwich. I glanced down at my sandwich and decided against it yet again.

"So," Ed sighed after he had finished his sandwich. "Neither of us knows how we got to be boyfriend and girlfriend, and yet everyone else insists that we are." I bit my lip and nodded. Ed sighed. "I guess the only option we really have right now is to go with it until we know what's going on."

I blinked. Wait, what? Ed wanted to _go with it_? But… He… I…

"Okay," I squeaked. Ed frowned and looked me over.

"You aright, Ray?" I closed my eyes and nodded vigorously. When I opened my eyes again, Ed's frown had deepened. "You haven't eaten anything."

"I'm not really hungry."

"You still need to eat," Ed said. His voice sounded as if he wasn't going to _let_ me argue with him. I sighed and licked my lips. "You haven't eaten since breakfast, have you?"

"I skipped breakfast," I said with a weak chuckle. Ed growled and grabbed my hand.

"Even worse," he said. "Your body hasn't had nutrients for a while. You need them. _Eat_."

Wait a second, Edward Elric was worried about me? But we weren't that close, were we?

"Eat," Ed repeated, his grip tightening. I squirmed against him and closed my eyes. But I didn't _want _to eat. Why couldn't he just leave me alone? But then again… Ed wouldn't have really cared if other people tried to skip two meals in a row. Why did he care if _I_ did? It was like I ranked up there with Winry and Al.

"Please, Rebecca," Ed said, his voice dropping to a whisper. I opened my eyes again and looked at him. I felt like something shattered when I saw the concerned look he was giving me. "I don't want to see you get sick. Just eat."

Wait a minute… Ed was concerned about me, to the point where it only rivaled how he cared for Winry and Al. Edward Elric _loved_ me. Like family. Not romantically, of course. He had never given any sort of indication that he loved me like _that_, but he actually _loved _me.

"I feel like I'm going to throw up," I muttered. Ed's grip loosened a bit.

"You still need to eat something," he sighed. "Would you prefer if I got you some… applesauce, or something?" I blinked and looked up at Ed. That actually sounded _really _good. I nodded, and a smile twitched at the corners of Ed's lips, but his face stayed serious otherwise.

"Alright then," he sighed, letting go of my wrist as he stood up. "Don't disappear on me again, okay?" I grinned and nodded. There was no way I wanted to go through _that _ordeal again. Ed flashed a grin back at me before he left the room.

I sighed. Dealing with problems was so much easier when Ed was on my side and constantly with me, making sure I didn't trip or skip meals. I frowned. Maybe I loved him too.

But I actually _did_ think of him in a romantic sense. What did that make him to me?

I shook my head. Okay, so… I loved him. I tried out the words in my head, and realized that it felt right. More right than whenever I had heard Joe say he loved me, and I had tried to convince myself I loved him back. I didn't even love Joe as a best friend. But Ed… Well, I cared about him like I cared for my best friends back home, I just also happened to find him attractive as well. And not in the objective sense like I had with my friends and telling them that they were good looking.

I sighed and looked back up at the door Ed had gone through. Well, I could definitely live with the idea of knowing I loved Ed like I loved any other close friend, and I was at least interested in him being… more than any other close friend.

I was interrupted out of my thoughts as the door creaked open again, and Ed came back in the room, holding a bowl in one hand, and a mug in the other. Ed sat back down on the bed and handed both objects to me. I sniffed curiously at the mug.

"It's tea," Ed said. I looked back up at him. He looked amused by the whole situation. "Al suggested it. He also said he's sorry for yelling. He thinks that's what got your stomach upset."

"Nah, my stomach was upset before you two started arguing," I said with a shake of my head as I set down the mug on the end table next to me. "And don't tell Al, but I don't really like tea," I added with a grimace. Ed laughed.

"Al seems to have a thing for telling people that it's good to drink some drink that they don't like," Ed said. I laughed, remembering all the episodes of FMA where I had seen Ed putting up a fight over milk. Tea aside, I decided to start on the applesauce.

It was some of the best applesauce I'd had in my life. I knew that it definitely wasn't the sort of thing you bought in a store. Someone had made it. I wondered for a minute if Izumi had been the one to make it, or if she had gotten it from some neighbor.

I finished the applesauce a lot quicker than I thought I would, and set the dish aside. Ed was watching me with a small smile.

"Better," he said, softly enough that I barely caught it. "I knew you were hungry." I snickered and nodded.

"Well…" Ed sighed and readjusted himself on the bed. "I thought that if we're going to try and go along with the idea that we're boyfriend and girlfriend, we might need to work a few things out."

"Like what?"

"Like…" Ed sighed and scratched the back of his head. "Like what your favorite flower is, the sort of thing that boyfriends usually know."

"I really like lilies of the valley," I said with a laugh. "But I also really like tulips. And sunflowers. Any flowers, really."

"Well, that's easy," Ed laughed.

"What else do you think we need to know about one another?" I asked, leaning forward. It sounded like fun, really, to just sit and learn all sorts of details about Ed that I didn't already know.

"Well…" Ed looked away from me and scratched the back of his head. "I kinda thought that… I dunno…"

"What?"

"Well, if we had really been dating as long as they say, we'd be a lot more… comfortable with one another," Ed said slowly. "Like hand holding, and… kissing and… stuff…"

I felt the blood drain from my face. Had Ed seriously suggested that we try kissing to make people not get suspicious of whether or not we really were dating? But I had only ever kissed one boy before. And that had felt so… weird. I looked at Ed again. He was blushing and trying to look anywhere but at me.

"Well—" I was cut off by a knock on the door. Ed and I both jumped and turned to look.

"Yeah?" Ed said. The door opened to show Al standing there and nervously shifting his weight from one foot to another.

"I was wondering if you wanted to spar, Brother," Al said. I watched a grin stretch across Ed's face, and couldn't help but grin myself. "It's been a while since we last sparred, and I thought that—"

"Yeah, of course, Al!" Ed interrupted. Al stopped his fidgeting and straightened up. Ed then glanced back at me, then, back at Al, then at me again. He smirked and stood up, while I kept sitting on the bed.

"We'll talk more later," Ed said before he leaned down and kissed me on the cheek. I froze and blinked in surprise. "You should come out and watch us," he added with a grin before hurrying towards the door and banging on Al with his fist before continuing downstairs. Al shook his head and followed him. I blinked in the direction of the empty doorway, as if an invisible Ed were still there for me to stare at. My whole face felt tingly after the simple contact from Ed.

He was _good_. He even had me believing we were dating.

* * *

Watching Ed and Al spar was amazing, as usual. The two were so well in tune with one another, it felt more like watching a choreographed show rather than just a practice. They were both amazing fighters. I sighed and rested my chin in my palm as I watched them.

Ed was all over the place as he tried to attack Al time and time again. AL seemed to move a lot less compared to Ed's almost frantic running and leaping to try and gain the advantage over Al. Al seemed more like he was being defensive and only was hitting Ed whenever Ed hit him first. But then again, that also made sense with their personalities. Ed was offensive and AL was defensive. I grinned and shook my head.

"Are you hitting harder?" Ed yelped indignantly as Al managed to place a blow on his shoulder. Ed scrambled away from Al and looked at him with narrowed eyes.

"No!" Al yelled back before running towards Ed.

I blinked. Now _that_ was weird. Al was supposed to be the defensive one, not the offensive one. Why was he suddenly attacking Ed? I frowned and watched the two more closely. Al was attacking Ed ruthlessly, and Ed barely had a chance to block blow after blow from Al. That wasn't the way they normally fought, I knew that. And Al had yelled at Ed too, not said something calmly that shot down the idea that he was hitting Ed harder.

I blinked and stood up. Something was wrong. Al was upset over something, very upset. It seemed like he was mad at Ed, whatever it was.

My thoughts flickered back to earlier that day. Al hadn't seemed TOO mad at the train station, though Ed had thought he would be. He had seemed somewhat okay back then. When he had started yelling at Ed was when Ed had asked if he and I could go eat lunch together alone. Then Al had yelled at him about not being able to talk to him recently and such.

I blinked. Oh. That had to be it. Al was used to constantly spending time with Ed, and now all of a sudden, I was swooping in and Ed was choosing to eat lunch with me instead of Al. AL probably thought I was stealing his brother from him, or something like that. I frowned and bit my lip.

"Alright, I give up!" Ed called out. I snapped out of my thoughts and looked up. Ed was lying on his back and looking rather worn out, while Al was holding up two fists and watching Ed warily. Ed groaned and sat up. He caught me staring and grinned at me.

I blinked. What was up with that guy, anyway? Since when would Ed choose to hang out with someone like me over hanging out with his brother? And how was he so easily slipping into the role of pretending we were dating? I wasn't even slipping into it that easily, and _I_ had a crush on him!

"That was awesome, Al," Ed said as he stood up with a grunt and started walking back towards the house. "But I think I'm lucky I'm not in the hospital. I swear, you're hitting harder."

"That's ridiculous," Al said back as he began following behind Ed. Ed smirked and shook his head as he walked straight up to me.

"So what'd ya think?" he said with a grin. I smiled back slightly at him and glanced over his shoulder at Ed.

"You were both great," I tried hesitantly. I didn't want to say anything that would upset Al further.

"Yeah?" Ed grinned at me. I grinned back and shook my head. He was such a show off sometimes, but it was rather endearing. "Maybe sometime I could teach you a few of our moves." I felt my eyes light up at his suggestion. Now _that_ would be awesome. Learning sparring from Edward Elric himself.

"I'll see you guys later," Al sighed before walking past us and into the house. I bit my lip and watched him go. He was gone so quickly that I couldn't think of anything to say to him. I glanced back towards Ed. He was frowning in the direction of Al.

"He seems upset over something," I tried hesitantly. Ed blinked and turned back to look at me. "I think that he feels a little... left out."

"Nah," Ed said slowly. "I sparred with him. He wouldn't want to spar unless he was okay." I frowned and bit my lip. I wasn't entirely sure of that.

"I dunno..." Ed sighed and scratched the back of his head. "Maybe you should go talk with him, just to make sure."

"I wouldn't know what to say."

"Just say whatever. He's your brother. Just supporting him would help some," I tried hesitantly. Ed sighed again and shook his head.

"Maybe," he said before turning and going into the house. I groaned and followed after him. Ed was so... stubborn sometimes. What was it with him and feelings, anyway?

"Ed, maybe you should just…"

"Not now, Ray," Ed said as he turned around with a slight growl to his voice. I winced and took a step backwards. I hadn't thought I would get that reaction from Ed. Seeing him genuinely scary was… well, scary.

"Okay," I said, very aware of the whimper to my voice. Ed seemed to loosen a bit as he looked at me.

"Sorry," he muttered, running a hand through his bangs. "I… I just… We'll talk later. I need to cool down." With that, he turned and started walking away from me.

I frowned. So Ed wasn't going to go talk to Al. But Al was upset anyway. Alright. Then if the two brothers were _both_ going to be stubborn, then _I_ would go talk to Al. Maybe I could help him out, somehow. I sighed and starting walking up the stairs towards Ed and Al's room. I hoped that Al would be in there.

I knocked on the door lightly. I wasn't entirely sure whether it was Ed or Al who would be in the room, and I didn't really want to talk with Ed after our argument, if it could be called an argument.

"Yes?" Al called out from inside the room. I sighed in relief and opened the door.

Al seemed to droop as I walked into the room. I felt myself begin to fidget out of nervousness.

"Hey," I tried.

"Hey."

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," Al said with a weak attempt at a chuckle.

I sighed. Al sounded really upset. I licked my lips and sat down on the bed beside him. I wasn't sure what else I could do. I wasn't even sure of what I could say to Al. All I wanted was to help him feel a bit better.

"Did you come here to say something, or what?" Al snapped at me after a minute. I blinked and turned to look at him. I wasn't used to Al sounding so harsh. He was usually kind and considerate to fault. He had to be _really_ upset.

"I just thought… you might… want to talk," I said slowly. Al sighed and clasped his hands together.

"Oh."

"You seemed upset when you sparred with Ed.

"I suppose I did."

I sighed. We weren't making any sort of progress. It was almost as if Al _wanted_ to be upset.

We were silent for another minute. I was surprised at just how calm and still Al could be while I continued to fidget through the silence. I really wanted to help, but I wasn't sure what I could do to help him.

"Did something happen between you and Ed?" I tried slowly. I wasn't exactly sure what approach I could take that would help Al the most, so I would just try every approach I could think of.

"Um… maybe. I'm not entirely sure."

"You're not _sure_ if something happened between you and Ed?" I groaned. Al looked away from me and shrugged. I felt the little calm I had begin to start slipping away. I just wanted to help Al, and he was just refusing to even admit there was a problem. He was obviously bothered by _something_.

"Would you just _talk_ to me?" I said, trying to keep my voice as calm as possible. It was so tempting to just snap and yell at Al, but I figured that would only end up making the problem worse.

"What do you want me to talk about?"

And that was when whatever inside of me decided to snap. I suddenly felt overwhelmed to an extreme about the entire situation. I had somehow forced Ed into being in a relationship with me, no one remembered who I was besides "Ed's girlfriend," Ed had snapped at me, and on top of everything else, Al was upset and refusing to talk about it. I just wanted to get out of the whole situation.

"Rebecca?" I heard Al ask. I turned to look at him as I felt myself quiver slightly.

"Why won't you just talk to me? I whimpered before I realized what I was saying. I sounded like such a typical whiny girl. Ugh.

"I don't know what you want me to talk about."

And that was when the dam broke loose. I suddenly felt myself break out in tears in front of Al, despite how hard I tried to hold it in. I really hated crying in front of other people.

"Rebecca…?"

"I just want to h-help you, but you must not w-want my help," I managed to hiccup through my tears. I felt so incredibly weak for crying in front of Al so fully. "And there's so-o many confu-using things going on, and I can't ha-handle it, and I just wanted to wo-ork out _one_ problem!"

I felt a large hand rest on my shoulder. I turned at the touch and thumped my head against Al, making my head ring for a brief minute.

"I just don't know what to do right now," I whimpered. "There's too much going on, and it's confusing me, and I never had to deal with all this at home!"

"What confusing you?" Al asked as he tried to gently hug me with his large hands. I whimpered again and snuggled closer against him. I wasn't entirely sure how the situation had turned from his problems to mine, but I wasn't about to figure it out while I was in tears.

"Everything's confusing," I choked out. "Ed."

"What about Brother confuses you?"

"The way he treats me."

"What about the way he treats you?"

"He treats me like I'm his girlfriend!" I wailed and banged my head against Al. Which was also not a very smart idea. I whimpered and squeezed my eyes shut.

"But you _are_ his girlfriend."

"Not really!" I said back, and winced as my voice climbed to a high pitched wail somewhat similar to a cat being strangled.

"Do you not want to be his girlfriend?" Al asked as he continued to rub my back. I opened my mouth to answer, and then found that I wasn't entirely sure what to say. I pulled away from Al and wiped at my eyes.

"I… I don't know anymore," I choked out. "I thought I knew before, but…" Tears started streaming down my face again, and I decided to bury my head against Al once more.

"But, Rebecca, you lo—"

At that moment, the door creaked open. Al and I both jerked to look and see who was coming in. Ed was standing in the open doorway and staring at us with wide eyes.

"Hi," Ed muttered as he glanced at the floor and scratched the back of his head. I wiped at my eyes again and peeled away from Al. Ed looked back up and glanced between me and AL. "Is she alright?" he said, staring at Al.

"I am here, you know," I retorted. I had meant for the come out witty and sarcastic, but instead, I just ended up sounding whiny again. I winced at my words, and Ed glanced over at me again.

"Sorry," Ed muttered and ran a hand through his bangs. "Are you alright?"

I felt my chin wobble. How could such a simple question get me so emotional? Something was wrong with me. I didn't normally cry so often or so easily.

"I'm a little stressed from all that's going on," I said, and my voice cracked on the words. Ed frowned.

"What does that mean?" I bit my lip and looked away. Talking things over with Al was one thing. Talking them over with Ed was another.

"Ray?"

A much smaller and softer hand than Al's settled on my shoulder. Something about the action made me break down again. Why was Ed, of all people, being so nice to me? I didn't understand the whole situation one bit. His grip on my shoulder tightened slightly.

"Ray?"

How was I supposed to say that I was confused about _him_ when _he_ was right there? Wouldn't that seem a little… bad?

"Ray." He put his metal hand on my other shoulder and shook my slightly. I started crying harder. "Ray, tell me what's wrong."

"Go away," I croaked out. He let go of my shoulders.

"What?"

"Just go away! I can't talk to you!" I said in what sounder closer to the wail of a banshee than the voice of a human. I had felt better before Ed had showed up. More free to just let things out. I just wanted to go back to that feeling. Ed took a step backwards from me.

"I… Alright," Ed said after a minute. He then turned and walked back towards the door. He then rested his hand on the doorframe and looked back at me. "If… If you ever do want to talk with me, I'll… I'll still be here," he muttered, and then turned and left the room, slamming the door behind him. I kept crying as Al rested a hand on my shoulder.

"Now why did you do that?" Al said with a sigh. "You and Brother have always been able to talk things out with one another."

"N-No we ha-haven't," I hiccupped. Al moved his hand and started rubbing my back gently. I was surprised at how soft he could be with his huge metal hands.

"Yes, you have. You and Brother are very good at letting one antoehr know about how you feel," Al sighed as he kept rubbing my back. I hiccupped and shook my head.

"Nuh-uh."

"Yes."

"Nuh-uh." How could we be so good at communicating when we had barely even been close friends? Al sighed again and shook his head.

"You two are so stubborn. I wish you two would just make things _easy _for once."

The door flew open again, and Ed came storming back in the room. I pulled away from Al and blinked at him, while Ed marched into the area in front of me and huffed. Oh shoot. I was in for it now. He was going to snap at me again. I winced and braced myself.

"Rebecca, I want you to know that I am feeling very rejected and abandoned right now because you sent me away when you were obviously upset, and I feel like that means that I'm not at all capable of helping you when you need someone."

I blinked. Where was the snapping? Since when did _Ed_ talk like that?

"Well, right now I feel very confused over my feelings for you," I blurted out before I could even register what I was saying. "And I want to work out my feelings, but since they're about you, it's difficult for me to talk about them with you, and you being close only makes me more confused and upset."

I blinked again. Wait, what was _I_ saying?

Ed then turned to Al, who was looking between us as if we had sprouted horns. Actually I wouldn't have been surprised if we really _had_ started growing horns.

"And Al, I want you to know that I feel badly abut spending less time with you recently, but lately I've had problems that have been more connected to Rebecca than you, so I've been going to her for counsel more often lately. I will go back to spending lots of time with you, you just have to bear with me and be patient until I manage to work out things with Rebecca."

I frowned. Just _what_ was going on?

"Wow," Al muttered. "I never thought you guys would actually work things out the easy way." Ed frowned and shook his head.

"What the hell was that?" Ed said with a twitch to his eye. I licked my lips and nodded. I had no idea why I had just blurted out all I had.

"What do you mean? You two were actually _communicating_ for once! It was great!"

"I mean, what the _hell_ was that?! It felt like one of Ray's crazy wishes! You didn't wish for that, did you, Ray?" I bit my lip and shook my head. No way would I wish for _myself_ to blurt out everything I had blurted out.

Then I remembered what AL had said just before Ed had stormed back into the room.

"_I wish you two would just make things _easy_ for once." _

I wish. I turned to look over at Al with wide eyes and Ed continued arguing with him.

Wait… _what_?!

* * *

_**Author's Note:**_

Whoo! I managed to get another chapter done! And a long one too! You all had better be grateful!

Lol, and sorry about the ending. I know that'll drive some people crazy until I update again. But that last section was so much fun to write! I was mostly written in spare moments of time whenever I had paper nearby, so it ended up being longer than I thought it would be, but oh well. More to love, right? And it's more of an Al centered chapter! Loooove~!

I love the title, by the way. Lol. BBB.

And now, I must go to class. Adieu!


	21. Chapter 21

_**Chapter Twenty-One – Concerning Kissing, Bets, and More Wishing**_

I went to bed that night without telling Ed or Al what I thought I had noticed. I was partially afraid of being told that I was wrong, of course Al didn't have wishing powers, you probably heard his wish and then wished it for him. Silly Rebecca.

But still… Al had wished for things to be easy. If I had been the one doing the wishing for him, I would have viewed "easy" in a much different way. I didn't entirely enjoy spilling out my feelings as the easy way of solving problems. "Easy" for me would have been Ed coming back in the room and giving me a hug.

Since I didn't know what at all to make over the situation, I decided not to say anything about it until I understood it better myself. So I went to bed that night feeling like I was going to explode from all the stress. It wasn't the best choice I had made, but I didn't want to deal with the situation. I just wanted all my problems to just go away, honestly.

I had trouble sleeping properly that night. All the bottled up stress ended up leading to tossing and turning for a couple hours before I finally managed to somewhat drift off, though it was nowhere near a comfortable sleep.

Next thing I knew, I was sitting in the Dublith kitchen the next morning, tapping my feet nervously. I had ended up deciding that I would just tell Ed and Al what I had noticed, and then hopefully they would deal with it and I wouldn't have to worry about it anymore.

"Hey, you look exhausted," a familiar voice said. I glanced up from staring at the table to see Ed standing in the doorway with Al and grinning at me. I smiled back somewhat weakly.

"I am," I muttered. Ed frowned and sat down next to me.

"Are you alright?"

I sighed and opened my mouth to try and say something, but then found that I wasn't at all sure what to say. Ed sighed and shook his head before he leaned forward slightly. I froze as I felt his warm breath wrap around my face. He smelled too good, he was too warm, why did have to be so tempting, for goodness sakes? I sighed and closed my eyes.

And then I felt two hands rest on either side of my face, holding me as if I were some sort of porcelain doll. I opened my eyes again out of surprise. I knew Ed wanted to make sure we kept up the illusion that we were dating in front of Al, but did he had to go that far?

"Tel me what's going on," he muttered. I bit my lip and tried to look away, but as soon as I tried to turn my head, his touch turned from gentle to firm, and he kept me from looking away. I blinked and stared at him.

"You've seemed upset recently," he muttered, and the thumb of his left hand started moving back and forth on my cheek. "I'm worried about you, Ray." I sighed and opened my mouth to respond, but before I could, he leaned forward even farther until he was so close that wouldn't have been able to respond if I wanted to.

Sheesh, was he ever close. Seriously, if he just slipped ever so slightly, we'd end up kissing. Heck, if I even tried talking, it would end up making my lips brush against his. So instead I settled for staring at him with huge eyes as I wondered what on earth he was doing. He sighed and his breath blew into my slightly open mouth.

And then all of a sudden he wasn't even that hair's breadth away from me. I squeaked slightly as his mouth pressed against mine. I had always had a problem with kisses with Joe. He had always seemed more intent on eating off my face than doing anything that actually felt nice. I had assumed that most kisses with guys were like that.

Except Ed's kiss was anything but. It was soft, like he was afraid of how I'd react, or if he'd break me, or something. And he didn't come anywhere near trying to eat off my face. In fact, he was pulling away before I barely even had a chance to register what was happening in the first place. I blinked and stared at Ed. He tried smiling nervously, but then the smile faded away.

And before I knew what I was doing, I was the one leaning towards him. I wasn't even aware of the choice I was making, I just felt an urge to make sure that it wasn't some fluke, that Ed really did kiss better than Joe ever had. It didn't even make sense. Joe was supposed to have been an experienced kisser, and Ed had never kissed a girl before in his life. Maybe Ed's kisses would start getting worse the more he knew what he was doing.

But then I was kissing him again, and I didn't have the time to think about it anymore. Ed's kiss wasn't quite as soft as the first kiss, maybe because I had been the one to start it and had reassured him that it was okay to kiss me?

My thoughts were racing a mile a minute. Okay, what exactly was I supposed to do? I wasn't my "first kiss," but it felt more like a first kiss than any kiss with Joe ever had. Wasn't I supposed to wrap my arms around his neck or something? Well, that did sound nice. Then I could touch his hair.

So I wrapped my arms around his neck while I tried to figure out what else I was supposed to do. Wasn't there supposed to be more movement than we were doing?

Oh, wait, Ed seemed to already understand that himself. He had wrapped his mouth around my bottom lip and almost seemed to be playing with it for a minute before he pulled away, breathed into my mouth, and then leaned back in to wrap his mouth around my upper lip.

Boy, for never having kissed a girl, he sure seemed to know what he was doing.

And hang on. If we were only kissing to keep up the illusion that we were dating, why was he putting so much effort into kissing? He could have just mashed his mouth against mine without doing much else, and it would have looked authentic to Al. Maybe it was because he had never kissed any sort of girl before, and he was excited to know what it was like.

And then he pulled away and looked at me. I felt myself whimper slightly and tighten my arms around his neck. Ed sighed with a slight smile.

"I want to know what's going on with you, Ray," he whispered. "Tell me what's been bothering you, and then I'll go back to kissing you, okay?"

I blinked. _Why_ was he talking to me like that? It was so… _weird _to hear that sort of tone from Ed instead of Joe. Only Joe made it sound like he was saying that sort of thing out of obligation. Ed made it sound like…

And then it clicked in my head. I felt the blood drain from my face. Oh, man. It wasn't an illusion any more. It just wasn't. No way would Ed talk like that to keep up an illusion. He actually _liked_ me. As more than just a friend. Oh, man. But he was Edward freaking Elric! How could he ever like _me_?

"Al made a wish and it came true," I blurted out before I knew what I was saying. Normally I wasn't the sort who like to solve problems that way, but something about realizing that Ed actually liked me and was worried about me and trusted me… it loosened my tongue slightly. Ed frowned.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean," I sighed, "that Al wished that we would solve our problems the 'easy way' and then you came bursting in the door and confessing to all sorts of feelings. I think Al has wishing powers too."

Ed dropped his hands from my shoulders and stared at me with a deep frown. "No, he doesn't."

"But—"

"If Al had wishing powers, he wouldn't still be stuck in that god dammed suit of armor!" Ed shouted at me before he stormed out of the room. Al glanced quickly between him and me before he started hurrying in the direction Ed went.

"He has a point, Rebecca," Al said before he ran out of the room calling after Ed to calm down.

I sank into one of the chairs by the table. Yes, he had a point. And I had just told Ed one stupid little suspicion, and it had made me lose him just as I finally realized that he actually _liked_ me. So much for that. I didn't blame him. Who would want to keep liking me for very long anyway?

"Ray?"

But I just wanted him to go back to kissing me. I felt tears start rolling down my face. Why couldn't I just have an actual amazing guy for a boyfriend? A _real_ boyfriend, not a "let's keep up the illusion" boyfriend.

"Ray."

I just wanted Ed back. I wouldn't tell him any more of my suspicions if it meant he would come back in the room.

"Rebecca, please."

I blinked. Wait, I knew that voice. I opened my eyes.

And in an instant, the dining room table was gone, and I was lying in my bed with Ed hanging over me, his hair out of its usual braid and hanging loose around his shoulders. He had both his hands on my shoulders and was frowning at me.

"You were having a nightmare," he muttered before he let go of me and sat on the edge of my bed. "Are you alright?"

I licked my lips and sat up. I couldn't even remember the dream I had been having. But my throat hurt, and my eyes felt as if I had just been crying. It sure did seem like I had just been having a nightmare. I bit my lip and looked up at Ed.

And something about how he was watching me made me break down. I felt my chin start wobbling—sheesh, had I been crying a lot recently—and then I leaned forward and buried myself against Ed's chest.

He was frozen for a minute before he sighed and wrapped his arms around me.

"I know, Ray, I know," he whispered. "Those must have been some pretty bad nightmares."

He was being too nice for Ed. I was half worried that I was just going from one dream to another. And I still didn't know what my nightmare had been about. It bothered me that it was right there on the tip of my tongue, but I couldn't place what it had been about. I just knew that hugging Ed was extremely comforting.

"Don't leave me," I croaked out before I knew what I was saying. Ed's hands paused for a slight minute before I felt his chest move with a heavy sigh, and then he went back to rubbing my back.

"I won't," he muttered. "You're one of my best friends, Ray, I'm not going to leave you."

I blinked and pulled away from Ed to stare at him. "Best friends?" I repeated. Ed snorted slightly and grinned at me.

"Yeah, best friends."

I frowned and looked away from him to think over that idea. It was easy to sit in that room and remember just how far we had really come. I had started out by meeting Ed because he was mad that I was sleeping in "his" bed. And now I was sitting on the same bed with him, and he was there saying we were best friends.

"Whatever happened to hating me?" I croaked out as I wiped at my eyes. Ed chuckled.

"I guess we… moved past that," he said in a low tone. It was a little hard for me to hear. "You got a little hard to hate after a while."

I felt a smile creep across my face. Ed was so different from so many other people I knew. He was amazingly great to hang around.

Something about the moment, right then, felt like it would be perfect for me to just blurt out to Ed that I liked him in a more than just friends sort of way. I opened my mouth to try, but nothing came out. Ed watched me for a minute before he sighed and pulled me into a hug.

"Best friends," he whispered.

I shut my mouth again. I didn't have to tell him right away. I didn't have to ever tell him, really. I didn't want to ruin our friendship by admitting I wanted more. Even if a relationship with him for real would have been amazing, just being friends with Ed was too amazing in itself for me to want to do anything that could make me need to give it up.

So I stayed silent.

* * *

I ended up hugging Ed until I fell asleep again. Luckily, I didn't have any nightmares when I was sleeping in his lap. He seemed more okay with the whole situation than I ever thought he even could be. He just sat on my bed and stroked my hair until I fell asleep. Which was not hard to do when he was treating me like that. And also was probably part of the reason why I didn't have more nightmares.

When I woke up again, Ed's hand was still on top of my head, but no longer moving. And he was also very quiet. I grinned and glanced up at him. He was asleep. I smiled and put my head back down. I didn't really want to crawl out of his lap anyway, and I could use the excuse of saying that I hadn't wanted to wake him by moving around.

"Rebecca..." he muttered, and his hand clenched a chunk of my hair. I glanced up with a frown. His eyes were still closed, so he was still asleep. He was just talking in his sleep.

"No, not Rebecca," he muttered, and squirmed in his sleep. "Not her… take me instead… no… Rebecca!"

I sat up and looked at Ed. He still kept his hand gripping my hair. He looked like now he was the one having a nightmare. I bit my lip and leaned forward slightly.

"Ed, it's okay," I whispered.

"Rebecca..." The worried look on his face lessened somewhat, but he still looked upset. I sat there biting my lip and wondering what to do.

And then I decided that I wasn't going to stop myself from doing something just because I was worried about the message it could send. He was asleep, after all. He wouldn't know I was sending him messages of more than just friends.

So I leaned forward and place my hands on his cheeks. Ed stopped wriggling immediately.

"Ed, it's okay," I whispered. "I'm right here. I'm okay." He seemed to calm down slightly, but he also kept a look of strong worry on his face.

"Truth…" he muttered. "Take you… I can't let…"

I felt myself freeze for a minute, but I kept trying to comfort Ed as if nothing had happened. "It's alright, he can't get me. I'm right here."

Truth? He was dreaming that Truth was trying to "take me"? And then he was offering himself to be taken in exchange for me? But he was only supposed to have those sorts of dreams bout Al. Not about me.

He really had meant it when he had said we were best friends. I smiled slightly.

"Don't leave…" Ed muttered, making me snap out of my thoughts just in time to see him let go of my hair and shift in his position until he was the one in _my_ lap. I felt myself freeze between a twist of excitement and of nervousness.

But as if that wasn't enough, he then wrapped his arms around me and snuggled his face deep against my belly. I squeaked in surprise, then sighed and looked down at him.

He was curled up in the fetal position around me, and burying his face against me still didn't hide the deep frown on his face. He looked so vulnerable. I sighed and started rubbing his hair like he had done for me when I had fallen asleep.

I had already gotten all the sleep I needed, so I wasn't able to do much of anything. I couldn't move because I didn't want to disturb Ed. I couldn't sleep because I wasn't tired. I couldn't even read because I couldn't reach my book, and Al wasn't there to hand it to me. I hadn't seen Al in the room all night, actually. I frowned. What was up with that? I thought Al was always wherever Ed was. Al wasn't still upset with Ed, was he?

So I ended up sitting with Ed for hours, rubbing at his hair and getting lost in my own thoughts. Every now and then, Ed would moan slightly and shift in his sleep, which was the cue for me to assure him that I was still there and still okay, don't worry. That seemed to usually calm him down before his dreams could get any worse.

Ed was still asleep by the time the clock hit ten o'clock in the morning. It was getting late and Ed still wasn't awake. I was beginning to worry that someone would come in to make sure we were getting up and would catch us curled up together. Not that it would matter anyway. Everyone in the house thought we were dating as it was.

"Rebecca…" Ed muttered in his sleep. I sighed and started rubbing his hair again, realizing I had paused as I had been thinking.

"It's okay, Ed. I'm still here. I'm not going to leave you."

Something about those words sounded very familiar. I licked my lips and tried to remember where I had heard them before.

And then it hit me. Ed had said the same words to me before I had fallen asleep in his lap. I smiled and looked down at him. So we had both said we weren't going to leave the other one. That was actually pretty comforting to know. It meant we would continue to be together until we decided for ourselves that we didn't want to be together.

Wait, that made it sound almost as if we were in a relationship. I frowned and bit my lip. Well, we were in a _relationship_, I suppose you could say, but that made it sound as if it were a romantic relationship. And it wasn't. We were friends—very close friends—but just friends.

"Rebecca?" Ed shifted beneath me.

"It's okay," I muttered out of habit. "I'm right here. It's okay."

A heavy sigh escaped from Ed and then he shifted again. I glanced down and noticed that for the first time in a while, I could actually see his bright golden eyes. I grinned and pulled my hand away from his hair.

"Well, good morning," I said. He groaned and sat up.

"Mornin'," he muttered. "…Sorry about that."

"You were just having nightmares. I thought I'd return the favor you gave me."

Ed paused for a minute. "Yeah… This is probably the first time I've woken up from nightmares without knowing I would be covered in bruises," he said as he started to slowly grin. I wanted to grin back at him, but his words sounded heavier than he was trying to make them.

"You're usually covered in bruises after you have nightmares?"

Ed paused and looked away. He had obviously been hoping I would glaze over that if he had treated it like it was no big deal. "Well… yeah. I usually thrash around a lot more and hit the wall, or my own automail… whatever's hard and nearby."

I frowned again. That didn't sound very pleasant at all. Even when I did have nightmares, I didn't normally end up with bruises from them. That was some pretty bad nightmares.

"Well, guess we should go eat breakfast," Ed said, trying to lighten the mood again as he stood up. I heard a creak from his automail as he did so. Maybe I was just over-worrying after he had mentioned that he got bruised so often during nightmares. I sighed and stood up. Ed glanced over at me and sighed as well.

"Look, Ray, it's no big deal. Just a few bruises, usually. And you stopped me from doing even that last night," he said. I bit my lip and glanced up. Ed grinned at me. "You were awesome for doing that."

Then I couldn't help but grin. Edward Elric had just called _me_ awesome. I wanted to have a recording of that. That was enough to bring me out of almost any bad mood. Ed grinned back at me and headed for the door.

"Come on, I'm starving," he said, and then glanced around the room. "Hey, where has Al been all night, anyway?" I shrugged. I had been wondering the same thing myself while Ed had been asleep.

We headed down to the dining room, even though it was slightly past breakfast time. Izumi usually made something for breakfast, but that was around six in the morning. Which, did I need to mention, her schedule was insane? But then again, she and Sig probably needed to wake up early in order to open the meat shop on time.

"Guess they're all in the shop or something," Ed sighed when he noticed the dining room was empty. He ran a hand through his bangs, and then grinned and shrugged. "Eh, no matter, we can make breakfast for ourselves."

I snorted. "I thought that you burned everything you cooked! What are you going to make?"

Ed glanced at me and crosses his arms across his chest with a huff. "I do _not_ burn everything I cook!"

"Says you," I laughed. I remembered the anime too vividly. Sure, he would say he could cook, and then he'd just burn it, and then Al would sigh and take over. That was just how the world worked.

"Do you wanna bet?" Ed said with half a growl to his voice as he stepped closer to me. I grinned at him.

"Sure, but I don't have money."

"The best bets aren't done with money," Ed said with a smirk. "If I can cook breakfast, then you…" he paused for a minute. I thought I saw a slight blush to his cheeks. What was he thinking about?

"You… can…" Ed paused and licked his lips. "Well… make cookies!"

I frowned. Make cookies? What sort of a prize was that, anyway? "I don't know how to make cookies," I said slowly. Ed sighed and waved his hand.

"If I win, it'll prove that I know how to cook anyway, and then I'll just teach you how to make cookies."

"Then why not just make them yourself?" I laughed. Ed made a face and stuck his tongue out at me.

"Because it's more fun this way."

I sighed and shook my head. "Alright, fine."

"What do you want if I ruin breakfast?"

Now there was a hard question. Anything I really wanted, I could just get by wishing. If wanted some sort of prize from Ed, it'd be something that included him having free will in the matter.

I felt my face drain slightly. What was I going to wish for, a kiss from him?

"Um… I don't care," I muttered. Ed turned from looking at the ingredients in the cupboard to give me a confused look.

"If you don't care, why are we having a bet in the first place?" he asked. I shrugged. "But there has to be something you want."

Yeah, I wanted to know if Ed actually liked _me_ as more than a friend or not. But I didn't know how to make that into a wish.

Well… actually…

"If you ruin breakfast, I want you to answer any one question I ask of you truthfully," I blurted out before I realized what I was even saying. Ed stared at me for a minute and then smirked.

"Done. Too bad I'm going to win. I'm a bit curious what you want to ask."

I chuckled nervously and then stepped up to the counter Ed was standing at.

"Is there some way I can help?"

Ed glanced at me and blinked, then shrugged. "Sure, as long as you help little enough that you know for sure that I _can _cook."

I laughed. "Well, I can't cook anyway, so I'd hinder more than help your chances."

"Oh, I see how it is!" Ed said with a laugh. "You're just trying to stop me from getting my cookies!"

I laughed and then watched as Ed pulled out eggs and cheese and who knows what all else. He at least seemed comfortable in the kitchen, whether he could cook or not. And he seemed happy too. It was hard to not be happy watching him.

'_I could easily get adjusted to this sort of life,'_ I thought with a grin as I watched him start slicing the cheese. _'If only every day were like this.' _

"Stir," Ed commanded, making me jerk back to the present and grab a bowl from him. It looked like eggs with all sorts of other stuff in it. I chuckled and grabbed the spoon from Ed, and started stirring while he grabbed a frying pan and butter. I started humming to myself and shifted the bowl to my hip. It felt more comfortable that way.

And then there was a clang. I stopped stirring and looked up at Ed. He was staring at me and the frying pan was on the floor. I frowned and put the mixing bowl back on the corner.

"Ed? Are you okay?"

"You… You…" Ed stammered, then shook his head and swallowed. "What do you mean you don't know how to cook?"

"Huh?"

"You were stirring like you… and you were humming… and you put it on your hip… and…"

I blinked in surprise and Ed sank to his knees and buried his face in his hands. I frowned in surprise and then hurried to him and sat down in front of him.

"Ed? What's wrong?"

He pulled away from his hands and stared at me, then sighed heavily before he stood up again. I stood up as well.

"Sorry," he muttered.

"What happened?"

"I…" Ed trailed off and then looked at me. Something flashed across his face before he sighed and shook his head. "You just… you looked just like Mom for a minute."

I blinked. My hair was definitely too short to be like his mom's. I couldn't even put my hair in a ponytail, in the first place. I frowned and cocked my head to one side. Ed sighed and picked up the frying pan.

"She always stirred things balanced on her hip," he said a soft voice. "And she always sang while she cooked. And you just… it's nothing, I guess." I nodded slowly and then picked up the mixing bowl again, being sure not to put it on my hip or to hum while I stirred. Ed put butter in the frying pan and spread it around, then held out his hand for the mixing bowl. I handed it to him silently and watched him pour the eggs into the pan.

"She's the one who taught me how to cook," Ed whispered while he stirred the eggs.

Needless to say, the anime seemed to be wrong about Ed's cooking abilities. His eggs turned out wonderfully, enough so that I had a hard time not eating any more after I was full. But he didn't say a word about when I would have to bake cookies.

* * *

"Hey, what are you two doing?" Al asked as he walked in the room. Ed and I jerked and looked up at him, then at one another, and then we both shrugged in unison. Honestly, we hadn't really been doing much of anything. We had both been sitting together on the sofa and not saying a word to one another. I had figured Ed was so lost in his thoughts that I didn't want to disturb him.

"Did you guys get in a fight or something?" Al asked and cocked his head to one side. Ed and I glanced at one another and then back at Al.

"No," we said in unison. Al considered us for a minute, then sighed and sat down on the floor in front of us.

"Where have you been recently, anyway?" Ed sighed, leaning forward and resting his chin in the palm of his hand. Al shrugged.

"Well, you two weren't awake earlier, and then Teacher said she wanted to go grocery shopping and asked if I wanted to go with her, and I said I would."

"Yeah, but why weren't you in the room through the night?"

Al chuckled and shook his head. "Well, you may not realize it, Brother, but it can get a bit awkward to stay in the same room as you two during the night."

I blinked and cocked my head to one side. Why would it get awkward? I glanced over at Ed. He was staring at Al with wide eyes and a blush on his cheeks.

"But… we don't…" he coughed.

Al chuckled and shook his head. "Better safe than sorry with the way you two get." Ed coughed again and looked away from Al as his blush got darker. I frowned and looked at him.

"What's he talking about?"

"Nothing, Ray!" he said, waving his hands frantically. I frowned and shrugged. I wasn't sure why Ed didn't want to tell me whatever Al was talking about, but I figured it didn't really matter anyway.

And then from there, we fell into silence again. I sighed and looked away from Ed, and felt Al look between us.

"There's something definitely going on with you two," Al said with a sigh. Ed jerked, making his knee brush against mine.

"There's nothing wrong," Ed muttered. Al sighed and shook his head.

"Alright, that settles it. Talk. Both of you." I blinked and turned to look over at Al.

"I don't really know what to talk about," I sad with a frown. Al sighed and shook his head.

"Yes, you do. Just say whatever's on your mind."

A moment of silence passed between all three of us before Ed finally sighed and scratched the back of his head. Al and I both turned to look over at him. He shook his head and sighed again. Then I realized that Al was right. Something was definitely bothering at least Ed. He looked stressed.

"I've been keeping too much from you recently, Al," Ed said with another sigh. "I'm tired of all the secrets."

"Then tell me what's going on now."

"You won't believe me."

"You won't know for sure until you tell me and give me a chance to react."

Ed groaned and looked back up to stare at Al. Al stared back at him with a stony face, though that was majorly helped by the armor helmet.

"You're so stubborn," Ed muttered.

"So are you," Al said with a chuckle. Ed chuckled with him and shook his head.

"I guess you have a point there."

"So are you going to tell me what's going on?"

Ed paused and then looked over at me, as if he was waiting for some sort of approval or something. I grinned at him and nodded, hoping that would encourage him. Heck, if he needed to talk things out with Al in order to feel better, then I figured that he should talk. I didn't like seeing Ed so upset.

"Alright," Ed sighed. Another moment of silence passed between the three of us and Ed seemed to be organizing his thoughts while Al and I waited patiently for him to talk.

"Well, for starters, Rebecca has really strong… wishing powers," Ed sighed. "As in, she can wish for something, and it happens, no equivalent exchange or anything. And you used to know that she had these sorts of powers, but then you lost all your memories."

"I did?" Al blinked.

"Yeah. Everyone lost their memories of Ray, actually. I was the only one who remembered her," Ed said slowly. I licked my lips and nodded. Al continued being silent. "And then something changed, and suddenly everyone remembered her, but they remembered her as being my girlfriend."

"So you're saying that you two haven't actually been dating for five months?" Al said slowly. Ed closed his eyes and nodded. "But… I can remember it all so vividly, and… none of those memories are real?"

"Not as far as I know," Ed sighed. "It could always be that you have the real memories and Ray and I had all our memories wiped and replaced."

I blinked and thought over that for a minute before groaning. Ed and Al glanced over at me. "My brain's starting to hurt," I moaned. Al chuckled.

"Well… what are we supposed to do about this?" Al said after a minute. Ed sighed and shrugged.

"Hell if I know. I just want to know what's going on." Al nodded and looked over at me. I licked my lips and looked at my lap. Both Ed and Al would want me to talk about whatever I had on my mind, now that Ed had talked. And I actually had something that could help. But... I was worried about mentioning it. Some part of me worried that both brothers would stand up and walk out on me if I suggested that Al had wishing powers.

Well, if that happened, I could always wish that they would come back until we all worked everything out and completely understood one another. I sighed and nodded my head. That seemed like a plan, at least.

"I noticed something interesting earlier yesterday," I started slowly. Al nodded as a way of seeming to say that he wanted me to keep talking.

"Well, you know how I have wishing powers and all, right?" I said. Ed and Al both nodded, Ed slightly more enthusiastically than Al. "And do you remember yesterday when Ed stormed off for a while and then came back and started admitted to all sorts of feelings?"

"Yeah, I remember that," Ed said slowly. "That was weird as hell."

"Oh, that's what Brother was ranting about for a few minutes," Al said with a laugh. "He was going on about 'wishing' for a few minutes and I had no idea what he was referring to."

"Yeah," I said with a laugh. "But do you remember what you said right before he stormed back in, Al?" Al was silent for a few minutes and scratched his head.

"I just remember wishing that you two would solve things the easy way instead of making it so hard."

Ed inhaled sharply beside me. I glanced over at him. He stared at me for a minute and then looked back at Al.

"That would be the sort of easy way Al would want to get a problem fixed," he said slowly. He then turned and looked back at me. "What would be the 'easy way' for you for a problem to get solved?"

I licked my lips and thought for a minute. "The easy way would have been... well... probably you coming in and giving me a hug and saying it was okay and you were sorry, and then everyone would just forget about it." Ed snorted and shook his head.

"Yeah, I don't think you wished it for Al," he said with a chuckle. "Which means that... Al must have wishing powers too," Ed said slowly as he turned back to look at Al. Al was silent for a minute before he looked down at his own hand.

"But... then why don't you have your body back yet?" Ed said slowly. "Wouldn't you just wish for that and get it back?"

"Not until you get arm and leg back, Al responded firmly and almost instantly. Ed sighed and shook his head.

"Yeah, that would be why."

Silence passed over the three of us for a few minutes before Al clenched his hand in a fist and looked back up.

"But, Brother... then why haven't YOU gotten you body back yet? Wouldn't I just wish for you to get your body back first, and then we'd both be normal?" Ed winced and looked away.

"Well…" he sighed and scratched the back of his head. "Maybe it wouldn't work if… I dunno."

"What?" Al and I said together, both leaning forward. Ed sighed and looked back at us.

"Well, you know how I said that everyone lost their memories of Rebecca," he said slowly, phrasing it more like a statement than a question. I nodded slowly.

"Well... right before everyone suddenly forgot about her... I sort of... well, wished we could have a new start, basically."

I blinked and stared at Ed. Wait, was he just saying that _he_ had wishing powers too? Did everyone suddenly have wishing powers? So I wasn't some crazy powerful freak? Wait, Ed was the one who had made everyone's memories of me disappear? Why would he even want that?

"Sorry, Ray," Ed muttered, scratching the back his head.

"It's okay," I said slowly. "It all worked out anyway, didn't it?"

"I guess."

"So…" Al said slowly, and we both looked over at him. "Then are you saying that maybe neither of us has our bodies back because I'm wishing for you to get yours back first, and you're wishing for me to get mine back first, and our wishes are cancelling one another out?"

Ed chuckled and nodded. "You catch on fast, Al."

I blinked and looked between the two. _That _was why they weren't getting their bodies back? They were just being stupid stubborn Elrics and both being ridiculous. I snorted and shook my head.

"So we _all _have wishing powers, then?" I said slowly. Ed sighed and looked away.

"I suppose so."

"So then who wished for you two to be dating?" Al said with half a chuckle. Ed and I both stiffened and snapped to look over at him. "I mean, it's pretty obvious that's another one of these wish things."

"What, really?"

"Naaah, I don't think so."

Ed and I both jerked and looked at one another, speaking frantically and over one another. So he didn't even want to think I liked him then. I sighed inwardly. Great.

"Have it your way," Al laughed. "So... what should we do now?"

"I don't know," Ed sighed and shook his head.

"Well, for starters, I wish I know all the same memories you guys have been talking about, so I could understand things better."

Ed and I blinked and stared at Al, who was still for a minute before he sighed and held a hand to his head.

"Well, I suppose that confirms that," he said with a chuckle. "I'm able to wish like Rebecca can."

"So you have your memories back?" Ed said, leaning forward. Al nodded. Ed was quiet before he grinned and leaned back on the sofa again.

"Awesome," he muttered. "Now we can think of a proper plan."

"Well, Envy was the one who first told us about Rebecca's wishing powers, right?" Al said slowly. Ed blinked and nodded. "Well, maybe he knows more than that."

"Good idea, Al," Ed said slowly. "The only trick to that would be making sure he wouldn't hurt Ray but that he would also be willing to talk about whatever he knows."

"Sounds tricky," I muttered. It was _Envy_ we were talking about, after all. Ed sighed and nodded.

"But we'll figure something out," Ed said with a smirk. "We have been fighting this guy for a few years, anyway. And besides, we have three wishers among us, and he's got none."

I nodded and grinned. I wasn't sure what we were going to do, but I definitely trusted Ed to come up with a good plan.

* * *

_**Author's Note:**_

Woot! I actually got another chapter done! This makes me happy inside. I've also been planning out what's going to happen for the rest of the story. And we're actually getting close to the end! Whoo! Whaddya mean that makes you sad? Meh. Crazy readers.

I love Ray and Ed together. They'll be together eventually, I swear. Al's not going to let them get away with their avoidance much longer. Lol.

21 chapters?! Do you guys believe it? I sure don't. That's 63 of my normal sized fanfic chapters, oi.


	22. Chapter 22

_**Chapter Twenty-Two – Concerning Kidnappings, the Gate, and Hoenheim**_

I woke up the next morning feeling slightly numbed and fried. It was hard to think that both Ed and Al had the same sort of wishing powers as I had. It made me almost feel a little helpless, in a way. I had gone to sleep through the entire night wishing that Ed and Al would get their bodies back at the _exact same time_ so that they wouldn't have to worry about who got their body back first, but it hadn't done much of anything, it had seemed. Which meant that I either didn't _really_ want it, or one of them was blocking my wish. Or both were.

I sighed and decided that it wouldn't hurt to at least check to make sure that my wish hadn't actually worked in the middle of the night. Though I was still pretty sure the house would have been in chaos if it had.

I padded down the hall to the living room. Despite the early hour, Ed wasn't still asleep in the other bed across from me, and Al was no where in sight. I wondered what the two could be doing so early in the morning.

But then again, I was awake just as early as they were. It appeared that it had been a rough night for us all. I sighed and shook my head and poked my head around the corner into the living room.

"Whatcha sneaking around for?"

I jumped and whirled around to see who had spoken over my shoulder. Ed. Sheesh. He was stealthy like a lion going for the kill. And the house was so quiet at such an early hour that I had been startled by his normal speaking volume.

"I'm not sneaking, I'm looking for you," I huffed back. Ed shrugged his shoulders with a smirk.

"Looked like sneaking to me."

"Too much quiet freaks me out, alright?" I said back with a pout. Then something clicked in my mind. "Like you're one to talk, you were being even quieter than me. What're _you _sneaking around for?"

"I was just looking for Al," Ed said with another shrug. I licked my lips and glanced down at Ed's right arm. He was already wearing his long sleeves and gloves. I glanced back up and found him staring at me. He sighed and grabbed his right arm with his left hand.

"Still automail," he muttered. "I wanted to check if Al…" He trailed off and I nodded with a sigh. Well, if Al had gotten his body back, it hadn't been my doing, since I had wished for both brothers to simultaneously get their bodies back, and Ed was just as Fullmetal as ever.

"I…"Ed started, then winced and looked away from me. I frowned. Something was obviously bothering him, but how was I supposed to know what he was thinking if he stopped mid-sentence?

"What?" I pressed. Ed shook his head and continued to look anywhere but at me. I stepped forward and placed a hand on Ed's shoulder, making him wince again.

"Ed, what's bothering you?" I pressed. Ed finally looked at me, then sighed and shook my hand off his shoulder.

"I don't want to talk about it right now."

"Then when do you want to talk about it?" I sighed. Ed sighed as well and then looked away from me again.

"After I've had a bit of time to sort through my thoughts, alright?"

"But, Ed—"

"Brother?"

Ed and I both went silent and perked at the familiar voice coming from the kitchen. We then simultaneously drooped at the sound of familiar clanking coming from the kitchen as well.

"Oh, good morning, Rebecca," Al said as he poked his head into the living room. I smiled at him, and then Al turned his attention to Ed. He glanced down at Ed's right arm briefly, and then looked back up at Ed's face, just as I had done. Ed sighed and rolled his eyes before jamming his right hand in his pocket.

"It's still a fake arm, so would you all stop staring at it?" Ed muttered with a frown.

"Oh." Al looked away and shuffled his feet. I nearly laughed at the absurdity. We had all been trying to go around one another through our wishing, and as a result were all thwarted. Maybe if it were only one of us to do the wishing, something would actually happen.

"Hey, guys, what if one of us just wishes that you two get your bodies back instead of us all screwing one another up?" I tried, Ed and Al both looked up and immediately looked at one another.

"Al first!"

"Brother first!"

I slapped my hand to my forehead and shook my head. "You guys, I didn't say either of you had to be first. What if you guys were to both get your bodies back at the exact same time?"

Ed and Al glanced at one another and then simultaneously sighed.

"I…" Ed trailed off and looked up at the ceiling. "Forget it." He then jammed his hands in his pockets and turned around and left the same way he had come. I blinked. Something was bothering him, obviously. The fact that he had the ability to get Al's body back but couldn't anyway? I bit my lip and Al glanced over at me.

"Something's wrong with him," Al said with a sigh. I rolled my eyes and nodded.

"Obviously."

We stood in silence for a minute, and then I sighed. I wasn't sure whether or not to go after him. I wanted to go ask him what was wrong, but I was worried of how he would respond. What if he was having a problem with the fact that I had failed in my wishing just as much as he and Al had? What if he was really mad at me for continuing to try and find ways to make them able to have their bodies back?

"I'm going to go talk to him," Al said with a sigh.

"Okay," I said with a nod. Did that mean he didn't want me to go with him? I wanted to help Ed, but I really wasn't sure what to do. Al stared at me for a moment, then shrugged and went after Ed.

I frowned and glanced around the room. Well, what was I supposed to do with both of them gone? I sighed and jammed my hands in my pockets and walked out of the room. The best idea that popped into my head was to go for a walk.

The walk didn't seem to do much to help clear my head though. If anything, it seemed as if I was just making things worse by giving myself the silence and alone time to think about things.

But I couldn't stop thinking about Ed. He had seemed so badly upset. I wanted to help him, but what was I supposed to do? I didn't figure that there was much I could do as long as Al was talking to him.

I walked through the town without entirely knowing where everything was. I had spent a few weeks with Izumi before, but I hadn't gone much of anywhere without someone along with me or a set of directions in my pocket. I tried my best to memorize street signs so I could find my way back.

And then I found myself in front of someplace familiar. It was the same store I had gone to with Ed and Al when I had first met the two of them. I grinned to myself and went into the store.

I wandered through the racks, touching the clothes absentmindedly and glancing around. I could remember going through the clearance racks at the back of the store for my clothes and having Al tell me that I didn't have to worry about how much things cost when Ed was the one paying the bill.

I picked up a blue blouse off one of the racks and stared at it for half a minute before frowning and putting it back. Far too frilly, and it didn't look like it even showed off any curves.

And then I paused and stared at the shirt again, suddenly realizing that I had almost bought the exact same shirt so long ago. I frowned and looked around the store. Had my style really changed that much? I hadn't thought I had changed that much, but maybe I had after all. I glanced around the store, and decided to try and find something I thought was nice so I could see if I really had changed.

After a few minutes, I found the same set of colored coats that were the same as Ed's red coat. I grinned to myself and looked over them, remembering how much of a fuss I had thrown over the purple coat I had gotten. And the sad part was that even though I had gotten the purple coat, I couldn't remember ever wearing it. I frowned and looked over the rack. It was a shame really. Maybe it was because even though I claimed purple was my favorite color, sometimes it seemed a little too mellow. I bit my lip and then after a moment of thought, pulled a peacock blue coat off the rack.

After a few more minutes wandering through the store, I found a pair of black pants with gold trim, and a simple yellow shirt. The outfit seemed a lot... louder than the clothes I had bought before, but I sort of liked the bright combination. I grinned and slipped into a changing booth.

And then I saw myself in the mirror. I had seen myself in plenty of mirrors up to that point, but none of them had been full size, and I had never really done more than a brief check to see if my hair was straight or something similar. I hadn't really sat down and considered how I had changed in appearance.

My hair had grown longer, for starters. When I had first shown up in Ed's world, it had just barely reached my chin, and it was starting to actually brush against my shoulders. My chin didn't look quite as round as it once had, and my glasses had been banged up so much that it seemed ridiculous to keep wearing them.

In general, I looked... travel worn. Or something. For the first time since I had first shown up in that world, I actually felt as if I looked like I belonged with the Elric brothers. Something about me had shifted. Maybe it was my thinking changing so that I had gone from hardly being able to handle a week away from home to not having a home at all and being okay with it. I sighed with a grin and a shake of my head and started trying on the outfit I had picked out. I wasn't even sure why I was trying on clothes when I didn't have Ed or any sort of money with me to buy them, but at least it gave me something to do while I avoided being at the house.

The outfit actually looked... _nice_ on me. The yellow shirt was a lot tighter than what I was used to wearing, but I was actually starting to see that my figure wasn't necessarily something to hide. How long was I going to get to be a young teenager with an awesome metabolism, anyway? I had always thought my big chest was awful, but... I glanced myself over in the mirror and grinned. Most girls out there would kill for my size chest. Or get surgery. Even if it was awkward for me, I was getting an opportunity that most girls didn't, and I was trying to _hide _it.

I pulled on the bright blue coat and looked myself over. I looked _good_. I definitely looked more confident than I felt. Like everything just went right for me, even if other people would consider something to be bad. I sighed and bit my lip.

I really wanted to wear the outfit, but at the same time, I was terrified of it. It was like it was unlocking some part of me I didn't even know about. Some bright, confident girl that wouldn't run from having a crush on Edward Elric.

And honestly, I wasn't ready to meet that girl. I had no idea what it was like to be that girl all the time, and I wanted to have more time to figure her out before I started wearing the clothes for the role. I sighed and turned back to my old clothes.

And then the door to the changing room banged open. I froze and spun around, suddenly questioning whether or not I had locked the door.

Envy was standing by the open door, smirking slightly and staring at me. I was instantly very glad that he hadn't burst in on me in the middle of changing. Even if I questioned his sexuality sometimes.

"Wha-?"

I barely managed to stutter out the syllable before he shoved a cloth in my face, grabbed me around the waist and hoisted me over his shoulder.

The last thought I had before I passed out was anger at myself for not using a wish to get rid of him faster. And that the stupid cloth had smelled _really_ horrible.

* * *

The next thing I knew, I was in the white space of the Gate. I groaned and looked around, expecting Truth to show up somewhere to start messing with my head, but instead, there was a sort of... female presence. I frowned and approached the... thing... person... energy... whatever slowly.

"Hi," I said to the shape, and it gave off a warm glow. I grinned, suddenly feeling a lot better about the shape in comparison to Truth.

"Hi," the shape said back in a female voice. The shape then rippled and solidified until I was staring at Trisha Elric in front of me instead of a weird energy flow. She smiled at me, and my mouth dropped.

"I think it's a lot easier for a living person to deal with a Gatekeeper if the Gatekeeper takes on a form," she said with a shrug of her shoulders, and I nodded mutely. I agreed with her, but I was still wrapping my brain around the situation.

"Are you really...?" I trailed off, unsure of how to phrase it. "Is this real? Are you actually... the real Trisha?"

"Yes to both," she said with a smile. "All dreams have a meaning. Sometimes the meaning is that they're real."

"So... I'm actually at the Gate?" I stammered out, and she nodded. "And the last time...?" She nodded again. I frowned and tried to wrap my head around the information, and then something else clicked in my head.

"Waaait... you called yourself a Gatekeeper," I said slowly, and Trisha nodded and smiled again. "But... I thought that Truth was the only Gatekeeper out there."

"The only Gatekeeper between Earth and Tayhn. There are more worlds out there besides those two, and every pair of worlds has its own Gate and Gatekeepers."

"Tayhn?" I repeated with a frown.

"Tayhn. It's the name of the world that has Amestris in it. Just like how Earth has America in it."

"Oh." I said, still blinking and trying to wrap my head around _Trisha Elric_ being a Gatekeeper. That had certainly never been in the manga or anime.

"So... why am I here?" I said with a frown. "You going to tell me to take care of your sons or something?"

She smiled. "I wasn't planning on that, but I like it anyway."

I blinked and shook my head. "Then... why _am_ I here?"

"Because... Because you're a Gatekeeper too."

"What?!" I spluttered, and then started shaking my head furiously. "No, no, no way. I think I would remember something important like that. Besides, I'm alive. There's no way I could be a Gatekeeper."

"You were a Gatekeeper before you were alive. And then you chose to become a living human." I stared at Trisha with huge eyes. No way was this dream real like she had said. Maybe I was hallucinating because of that cloth Envy had shoved in my face.

"W-Why would I choose to become a human if I was a G-Gatekeeper?" I finally managed to choke out.

"Because you were in love," Trisha said with a smile. "You two becoming humans was the best way for you two to actually be together."

"So...this guy I fell in love with...he was a Gatekeeper too?" I said, and she nodded. "Well... then... who is he?"

"Edward."

I swallowed thickly. Somehow, I had been half expecting it and still caught completely off guard. It had to be a dream. Some way of my unconscious mind trying to push me and him together.

"Eeeh... I only have a crush on him," I said, and my voice croaked on the words. "I don't think I _love_ him."

"You do," Trisha replied firmly. "You only think it's a crush because you don't remember anything."

"I-I-"

"He loves you too, you know," Trisha said with a sigh. "Dearly. He's going to be so upset when he finds out that Envy kidnapped you."

"I-But-Why?" I stammered out. Trisha smiled and shook her head.

"There's no explaining love, dear."

"But... Why am I here? Just for you to tell me that you son loves me?"

Trisha kept smiling. "Only partially. You told me to help trigger your memories if there was ever a need. And I think Envy kidnapping you qualifies."

"Trigger my-?" I started, but before I could finish the sentence, Trisha turned around and touched her hand to the doors of the Gate. I took a step backwards, and the stone doors creaked open slowly. My eyes widened in fear and I had just turned around and started running when the black arms wrapped around me and dragged me in.

And then I began to understand what it really meant to have that much information crammed into your head at once. I knew that lots of information was getting crammed into my head, but I was only able to comprehend bits and pieces as it all flew past me.

* * *

"Junior Gatekeeper, I have a message for you from Elder Gatekeeper Tayhn-Renerth."

"What is it?"

"He thanks you for your help, and says that your ideas were brilliantly elegant."

"Well, tell him that I'm flattered, but I only came up with some of those ideas because I was drawing inspiration from his suggestions."

"I'll deliver the message."

* * *

"Junior, you and I both know that you were past the title of Junior long before you took up your post with me. Why do you keep holding back your power?"

"Power is dangerous. It always has been, and always will be. Only the pure should control it fully. Like you, Elder."

"Junior..."

"But I don't know what you're talking about. There's no way I have any more power than any other average Junior."

* * *

"Junior Gatekeeper Wahn-Socreto, I come with a message for you from Elder Gatekeeper Tayhn-Renerth."

"Yes?"

"He says that he thinks you are lovely and would like to meet with you face-to-face."

"Well... tell him... tell him I'll be there soon."

"He said that if that was your answer, to tell you that he'll wait for you for eternity."

"Well, tell him to stop making corny remarks like that."

"I'll deliver the message."

* * *

"He's wonderful, Elder! He's sweet, and funny, and he has such wonderful ideas, and his Junior is really nice, and-!"

"He sounds wonderful. Why don't you go do your post with him?"

'You know as well as I do that Gatekeepers never go in threes. Threes never work out well. And he doesn't want to abandon his Junior. Besides, I don't want to leave you anyway."

"It just seems wrong to see you so in love and unable to be with him as often as you'd like."

* * *

"I don't want to leave you again! I'm tired of this!"

"I know, but-"

"Why don't you and Elder become humans? Then you could be together all the time. I could even become a human too, and then you wouldn't have to worry about abandoning me, Elder."

"I don't know..."

* * *

"Let's do it. He's right. We'll never be able to get proper time together unless we do something like this."

"But-"

"But I _love _you. And I want to be with you, whatever it takes."

"I-"

"Trust me."

* * *

"But what about me? You promised me you'd keep me company!"

"I'm sorry, Gatekeeper Tayhn-Earth, but I have to do this. Get yourself a Junior to train. It'd be good for you."

"I don't want a Junior! I want you!"

"I'm sorry. But I'm in love with Elder Gatekeeper Tayhn-Renerth. I have to go."

"No, you don't!"

"I'm sorry."

"I'll kill him! I'll kill him for taking you from me!"

* * *

"Are you ready?"

"Mm."

"Ray? Are you scared?"

"I'm not scared. Are you?"

"No way."

* * *

"Wha-What are they?"

"They're homunculi."

"Homunculi? Those aren't supposed to-"

"They've existed in other worlds, it was only a matter of time before they started existing in this one too."

"But how-?"

"The Philosopher's Stone."

"So we-we-"

"Yeah."

* * *

"No matter where we go, someone always wants to use us to get whatever they want. We can never escape this hell. Why did we even choose to do this?"

"Because we love each other."

"Is this hell really any better than seeing each other once every ten years? Everyone around us dies!"

"They're only humans."

"Only humans?! Only humans _just like us_! You can't just be _okay_ with them dying!"

"But... it happens. They live, they die. It's the natural order."

"They could live longer! They could laugh instead of cry! They could live the normal, _happy_ lives we can never have!"

"Ray..."

* * *

"I don't want to lose you, Rebecca. I've had you in my arms for a hundred years since we first fell in love, I don't want to stop now."

"You won't lose me. I swear, one way or another, someday I will come to your world. How about this, Edward? You reincarnate first. Then I'll stick around in your world for a year to set up a spell. If you and I haven't found one another after seventeen years of us being apart have passed, then I'll be pulled forcefully from my world into yours."

"But— Forcefully is so… it could tear you apart!"

"Come on, this is me we're talking about, isn't it? I'll be able to handle it."

"But… I don't like it. You have no idea what could happen."

"All the more motivation for me to find you."

"You won't have any memories."

"A desire this large doesn't need memories."

"...Alright. Let's do it."

* * *

"You have to learn the value of human life, Ed! Without them, there wouldn't be any us! They're not less important just because they don't know as much as you!"

"Rebecca..."

"No! Listen to me! You think humans are so inferior, and yet they don't live in a world of white! They don't guard knowledge without ever questioning it! They don't know there are other worlds out there and yet never think about going to see any world other than their own. They don't even _know_ if there are other worlds out there besides their own, and they want to see them! They write books about places they've never seen for themselves! Sometimes books that tell about a world that actually exists, and they don't even know it! They paint, they sculpt, they sing! They _create_, they _question_, and they _dream_! Don't you see? They're so much more than us _because_ they don't know! They don't know anything, and they still don't give up! _That's_ exactly why the strongest Gatekeepers choose to become humans themselves, because they know that humans have something to teach us!"

"Teach us what?"

"Wonder! Creation! Faith! Maybe they do destroy things, and maybe they can ruin any situation they're placed in. But that's better than us, who have never created anything for ourselves, isn't it? We can never have children like they do. We just have our weak imitations of families with our Juniors and Elders."

"...So that's what this is. You want a baby."

"How can you not? How can you not understand humans when you _are _one? How can you not love their world like they do?"

"Because I'm scared, Rebecca. If I can create so much better than they can, I can destroy much better too. And I have. If I lose myself to humanity, I doom them."

* * *

And then I found myself suddenly back in the whiteness of the Gate, with Trisha staring at me. I took in a shaky breath and stared back at her.

"You're crying," she said simply and I touched a hand to my cheek. My fingers pulled away wet. I wiped the tears away and stared at Trisha again.

"I don't want to go back to being a Gatekeeper, even if I can't remember it," I said softly. As I spoke, I could feel my words gain more conviction the more I said. "I _like_ being human. Things can suck sometimes, but sometimes you can see just how beautiful the world really is. Humans are beautifully flawed. And you can see the truth more in the flaws than in the perfection. Or maybe it's that the flaws have to exist in order to provide contrast for the perfection. But whatever way you look at it, being human teaches you something that no white world ever can."

Trisha smiled at me. "That's the Rebecca I know," she said softly. "A geode among rocks."

I blinked and stared at her, wondering what that was supposed to mean, but just as I opened my mouth to ask, the world began to fade away.

"Wait!" I called out, and it felt like I was speaking through layers of cloth. "Don't I have to pay some sort of price for seeing-?"

"I'm not Gatekeeper Tayhn-Earth," Trisha said with a shake of her head. "My only toll is time."

And with that, the world went black.

* * *

I woke up to Ed staring down at me. I blinked in surprise and sat up quickly, staring at him. The last I remembered, I had been slung over Envy's shoulder and was being carried who knows where. But then again, Envy could shape-shift. It could be one of his tricks. I glanced around the room.

But to my surprise, the room looked exactly like the one I had been staying in at the Curtis house. I shook my head and looked back to Ed.

"Wh-What happened?" I managed to stammer out. He sighed and ran a hand through his bangs.

"After I stormed off, Al came up to my room to talk. I would assume that you then got bored and decided to go for a walk by yourself." I frowned and nodded. "Well, you went out for a walk, and I guess you passed out in the middle of it. Al and I got worried when you didn't come back, so we went looking for you. We found you lying unconscious on the sidewalk a couple of blocks from the house. So we carried you back here, and you've been unconscious and feverish ever since then."

"Oh," I said with a frown. "And how long was that?"

"A day and a half."

I stared at Ed with wide eyes. A day and a half? I couldn't believe I had been unconscious for that long. I had never been unconscious for more than... maybe half a day, at best. And it certainly hadn't _felt_ like I had been out for that long.

"_My only toll is time."_

I blinked. Oh. So that was what she had meant. I hadn't lost any limbs or organs, just a day and a half of my life. Which was okay by me. Losing a day and a half of my life was a whole lot less painful than losing a limb or two.

"Well... thanks," I said slowly, and Ed nodded. I debated whether or not to tell Ed about seeing his mom at the Gate, and then decided against it. The Gate was a touchy subject with Ed as it was, never mind bringing his mom into it. Besides, he had said I was feverish the entire time I had been unconscious. Maybe none of it was real after all.

"I was worried about you," Ed muttered, looking away from me. "I thought that maybe the last thing you would remember of me was me storming off without saying a word to you about why I was upset."

"I wasn't going to die from a day and a half of fever," I said with a small smile. He frowned and looked at me again. "I've gotten through much worse than that and lived to tell the tale."

"I guess," Ed muttered and turned to look away from me again. "I just... sometimes I think about my mom, and some of the things I regret not telling her, and then I worry about the same thing happening to you."

My thoughts flicked bak to when Ed had freaked out just over me humming while I stirred with the bowl on my hip. Just that one action had reminded him of his mom so much, so were there other things I did that reminded him of her?

"And... you've had so many brushes with death recently that I thought... I thought maybe it'd just be better if I just told you how I felt before you manage to run off and kill yourself, so... um..." I frowned and leaned forward. I wasn't really sure what Ed was trying to get at, but he sure seemed awkward.

"I... ah... I really like you, Rebecca," he stammered out. "In a... more than friends sort of way. And... uh... Well, sometimes I think that I might love you."

I nearly fell over. In fact, I actually had to grab the side of my bed for support to stop myself from falling into Ed. I stared at him with wide eyes, and he was silent for half a minute before he sighed and started talking again.

"But the thing is, whether you like me back or not, we can't be together," he said, speaking quickly enough to start mushing his words together. "Because that'd be putting you in incredible danger, and I can't do that to you. I have far too many people after me to risk having a girlfriend. There's Scar, and Envy, and..."

"Scar won't come after you anymore if you're not a State Alchemist," I interjected. I had seen my chance, and I had seen it start slipping away from me all within the same minute. Ed was actually admitting he liked me, and was shooting it down just because it was dangerous. "And Envy, well, he's... he's envious of you, mostly, I guess. Maybe he wouldn't go after you if you didn't have anything for him to be jealous of."

"What do you mean by that?"

"Well," I licked my lips and thought back to the anime. "Well, maybe he's only doing all this because all he wants is to be human. Maybe if he were human, he wouldn't have any reason to go after you."

"You think so?"

"Well, it's worth a shot, isn't it?" I said, and Ed grinned with a nod. Just as I opened my mouth and was about to figure out how to phrase a wish to make Envy human, there was a crash from the window, and a blond figure crashed to the floor. I stood up in surprise, and the figure let out a moan and started standing up.

It was none other than Hoenheim. He brushed himself off, then turned and looked at me and Ed.

"What are you up to now, Envy?" he said with a frown, and Ed scowled and crossed his arms.

"Gee, some nice way to greet the son you haven't seen for years," Ed shot back. "Maybe I should be checking if _you're_ Envy. I doubt the real Hoenheim would have the balls to show up again."

"Don't play games with her, Envy," Hoenheim spat back. "I can tell a human from a homunculus a mile away."

I looked between Hoenheim and Envy. So Hoenheim was saying that Ed was really Envy in disguise, and if Ed really was Ed, then Hoenheim was lying and was probably Envy himself. Or some other enemy I would want to avoid. But how was I supposed to tell who was who?

'_Duh, you still have your wishing powers.'_

I winced at the thought that popped into my head. Oh, right. I had forgotten about those, yet again. Something like that would definitely be useful in a situation where you couldn't tell enemy from ally.

"I wish that Envy would reveal himself," I said as I glanced between the two blonds. Ed winced, and then his form rippled and changed until he was the familiar long-haired homunculus. I bit my lip and took a step closer to Hoenheim and the open window. He glanced down at me, and then motioned towards the open window. I nodded and climbed out without another word. I could hear a crash from within the room, and assumed that Envy had tried going after me.

"You were right!" Envy called out from within the room. "It's worth a shot!" I frowned and glanced back at the open window. I was right? RIght about what? What was worth a shot? I shook my head and turned back to the roof.

Which was the point where I realized that I was crawling on a roof. I yelped and froze in my tracks, going down to a crouch and trying desperately to clutch at the shingles around me. I was terrified of heights. And if I couldn't feel the ground or could see the ground not touching my feet, it qualified as a "height" to me, even if it was only a foot off the ground. Being on the top of a roof was one of my worst nightmares.

But I had to. Hoeheim was in the bedroom battling Envy and figuring I was escaping to safety. And I was just sitting there frozen on the roof like a four year old. I bit my lip. Ed wouldn't just sit there doing nothing. I had to at least try to be brave like him.

So I slowly started crawling down the roof, inch by inch. I wanted to clench my eyes shut until it was over, but figured that it would be a better idea to keep them open as long as I was still on the roof.

Eventually I reached the edge of the roof and found a ladder leaned up against the building. I took a shaky breath and started climbing down the ladder. Part of the only reason I was able to make myself climb down the ladder in the first place was reminding myself that climbing down it was the only way besides jumping I was going to get myself down to ground again.

Once I felt my feet touch solid ground again, I let out a breath of relief. I never wanted to climb down another roof in my life if I could avoid it. After a quick look around, I tried to tell my knees to stop shaking, and then started running away from the house.

I wasn't entirely sure how Envy had gotten me so convinced that he actually was Ed, but it scared me. All he had to do was duplicate a room, slap on a fake face and spin a few lies and I was practically fainting in front of him.

I sighed. So Ed hadn't actually confessed all that to me. I was starting to get tired of having either dreams, Envy or Truth keep making me think Ed had seriously just admitted to me that he loved me, only to find out time and time again that it wasn't actually true. I was getting tired of falling after being brought up in hope so many times.

I didn't even know whether I had actually been passed out for a day or if that had just been some other part of Envy's tricks. Maybe even the dream I had had about Trisha wasn't real. Maybe Envy had hit me with some hallucinatory gas or something. It happened all the time in Batman, who was to say it wouldn't happen in some other fictional world? Maybe I was actually in Gotham itself, and I was really Batman, and I was constructing some crazy alternate reality for myself just because Scarecrow had hit me with some poison.

I paused and sat down on a bench by the side of the road. I was losing it. I was actually going insane, and all just because I had learned that the Ed that confessed his love to me wasn't actually Ed. Even though I had talked to Ed's mom in a crazy dream and _she_ had told me he love me. Dearly. I curled my knees up to my chest and buried my head in them, trying to quiet my tears.

The whole world was spinning out of control, and I could do nothing to stop it. I had no idea what was reality and what was fiction anymore, and I couldn't just snap my fingers and make things start making sense again. I just wanted things to simplify again, and for the _real_ Ed to tell me he loved me, for once.

"Somebody stop the world, I want to get off," I muttered through my sobs.

* * *

_**Lesson of the Day: Juniors and Elders (It's back! Woot!)**_

Okay, for those who were maybe slightly confused by the way Junior and Elder was used in this las chapter, let me explain. I wanted to show that the relationship between two Gatekeepers was sort of like an older and younger sibling, But I didn't want to have them calling one another "Big Sister," "Little Sister," "Big Brother" and "Little Brother." That made the Gatekeepers have even _longer_ names, and names that didn't even sound very respectful.

So I went to the Thesaurus and ended up choosing to use Elder for the older "siblings," and Junior for the younger "siblings." In many ways, a Junior is sort of like an apprentice as well as a younger sibling. They have to spend a set amount of time training under an Elder before they can become an Elder themselves, and then they can then go and run their own Gate if they choose.

Ed had already graduated from being a Junior and was Elder Gatekeeper Tayhn-Renerth, and Ray still hadn't moved up a level, so she was Junior Gatekeeper Wahn-Socreto. Truth was an Elder, but since he never chose to train a Junior, he didn't need to be called by Elder to differentiate him from his Junior.

So... Can anyone guess who Ray's Elder is? What about Ed's Junior? -snickers-

* * *

_**Author's Note: **_

Have no fear, this story shall not die! In fact, we have just entered into the climax of the story, hence why Rebecca is starting to go a little nuts. She's just having issues with all the stress that comes with climaxes. And Batman having hallucinations! Whee! (There was Lego Batman Wii for Christmas, don't ask.)

And thankfully, climaxes usually mean that I get excited and end up writing faster, so here's hoping for that!

But anyway, did this chapter boggle your mind or what? I've known that this was eventually going to happen since _forever_ ago, so it feels kinda nuts that things are finally starting to come out. And Ray realizes she's growing up too! And Trisha! And EdxRay! And-And-And I'm going to go write the next chapter now!

...Hm... The title for this chapter sounds kinda like it's starting to enter a climax, doesn't it? INTENSE.


	23. Chapter 23

23. Love. No love. Love. Ray. Agh.

I stormed up to my room in silence. Al hadn't gotten his body back. I hadn't gotten my limbs back either, but that wasn't the point. I had all the power in the world—no equivalent exchange—and I still couldn't get Al his body back.

I sighed and shook my head as I sat down on my bed. No. That wasn't the real issue. I wanted it to be the real issue, but it wasn't. The fact that it wasn't the real issue was part of the _real _issue.

The real issue was that I had forced Ray into being my girlfriend. I knew I had. At the very least, I hadn't gone and forced her into having actual feelings for me or remembering she was my girlfriend, but I had forced her into being trapped by everyone else believing that we were dating. And I might have forced some feelings onto her as far as I knew.

The real problem was, I wanted her to like me, and I had the power to make her like me, but I couldn't do it. And I felt like a jerk for even thinking about how I _could _force her to like me. I had been so worried about her making up the feelings I had for her, and I was thinking about doing just what I hadn't liked to her.

Then there was clanging outside my door, and I looked up. Al. Of course he would come up after I had stormed off to my room like that. I sighed and hung my head as if I were some disobedient child about to be punished.

"Brother? What's wrong?" he said as he poked his head through the open door. I sighed and shrugged my shoulders.

"I... Eh."

Al shook his head, then walked into the room and sat on the bed next to me. "Come on, Brother, you know you can talk to me."

I scratched the back of my head and looked up at the doorway to check if Ray had come with him. But the doorway stayed empty. Of course. Why was I even hoping that she would come with Al to try and calm me down after I had stormed off? Al was the one who always went to talk with me after I got upset, whereas Ray probably didn't even know what to do.

The truth was, she didn't have to _do_ anything. If she had just shown up in my door and started acting like her usual optimistic self, it would have made me feel great. I sighed and shook my head. "I... I dunno," I said slowly. What was I even upset over? "I just thought that I would be upset over the fact that you don't have your body back, but... I'm not. Well, not more than usual, at least."

I kept thinking about Ray. I couldn't stop myself. It was beginning to drive me nuts. When I got upset and stormed off, I was sitting there hoping she would come knocking on my door. How pathetic was that?

"Well, then what are you upset about?" Al said, and I sighed and ran a hand through my bangs. Good question. Just what exactly was I upset about? Well, there was always the option of just telling Al as much as I knew. He had a way of figuring out the real issues behind things when even I couldn't figure it out.

"Ray," I answered simply, and Al nodded and clasped his hands together.

"What about her?"

"Well, I just..." I trailed off and started fiddling with my braid. That was the tricky part. What about her? How about everything about her? She was getting to me, and the fact that she _could _get to me got to me even more. I never let anyone other than Al into my life that closely. I sighed and tried to sort through my thoughts.

"Well, I... I could easily wish for her to come up and tell me she thinks I'm awesome and never wants to leave my side and start kissing me in a fit of frenzied passion, but... I haven't wished for that." I paused and took in a shaky breath. Sometimes it was hard to even admit to Al some of the things I thought about. It was probably the first time I had ever admitted to anyone that I actually _liked_ a girl. "And even though I really wa... want that, I'm glad I haven't wished for it." And I was, too. I wanted _Ray _to kiss me, not some wish-induced zombie Ray.

"Well," Al started talking and shifted slightly, and I glanced over at him. I was having a hard time not hiding my face. I knew Al would eventually chew me out if I refused to look him in the eye for the whole conversation. "Doesn't that show all the more that you really care for her?"

I frowned and looked away from him again with a roll of my eyes. "Yeah, it shows that I care for her, not that she cares for me."

"Well, she hasn't done it to you either, has she?" I paused and thought over his words. No, Ray hadn't wished feelings on me, as far as I knew. But what was that saying? That she cared for me too, or that she wasn't an evil, mind controlling dictator?

Besides, Brother," Al added, and I snapped my head up to look at him. "It doesn't show that you care in a light sort of way. You're sacrificing your own wants just so she can be happy with what she chooses for herself."

"Lot of fat good that does me," I said with a snort.

"Well, maybe you should tell her you care that much."

"Oh, yeah, that sounds great," I said with a roll of my eyes. "'Ray, I care about you enough to sacrifice my own wants for your happiness.' Really rolls off the tongue there, Al."

Al chuckled and shook his head. "Well, there is a shorter way to say it."

"Oh, yeah, what?"

"How about 'Rebecca, I love you'?"

And that was about when I felt like I had been dumped into a pond of ice water.

Love_?! What? No! Yes. No! Love? What?!_

I shook my head. My thoughts were only going in circles.

_Okay, think straight. Love. No. He said that? He said that. No! Yes. Think. Love. No love. Girl. Ray. _

_You're a freaking genius and you sound like a caveman! _

_Okay, love. Ray. Rebecca. Love. Love Rebecca?! Agh! No! Yes. No! Love? What? _

I jumped to my feet and stared at Al. "No," I choked out. "No way. That's not true. I like her, but I don't like her _that_ much."

_Okay, that sounded harsher out loud, but it had to be said, right? You don't love her, right? Love? No. Love isn't allowed! _

Al sighed and shook his head. "You were just willing to say that you'd sacrifice your own happiness for hers, but you can't say that you love her?"

"Because I don't!" I snapped back at him.

Al then stood up and stared down at me, gaining about fifteen points on the intimidation scale. Man, I hated when he used height against me like that. I was supposed to be the scary taller brother, not him.

Even though I had grown about half a foot in a week, thanks to Ray. I had to thank her properly for that growth spurt someday. Maybe I could buy her something nice...

_No! No love allowed! Bad Ed! _

"Would you get angry if someone insulted her in front of you?" Al said, snapping me out of my crazy thoughts.

I frowned and tried to figure out what he was prying out of me with a question like that. When I couldn't figure anything out, I answered with a slow, "Yeees..."

"Do you like spending time with her, even if the time is spent talking about complete gibberish?"

I grinned as I remembered some of the conversations Ray and I had had over the time we had known one another. There had been arguments over whether chocolate or vanilla was better, talking elephants, debating whether one should buy grilled cheese or not, and arguing whether traveling over a rainbow was wet or not.

And yet all of those memories were times where I had actually been having... fun. Something I hadn't done much ever since I had been issued my silver watch. And, truth be told, the fact that I could talk about nonsense with Ray and be a goofball meant that I trusted her more than I did most people. I didn't often show people my goofy side, mainly because I had to be firm and angry in order for people to even start taking a kid seriously. If I acted like a goof, people just thought I was like any other kid out there, I just happened to have a fancy watch that other kids didn't have.

"Hey, those are some of the best times I've had with her!" I said to Al, and he nodded as if he had heard my entire thought process.

"If you guys got in a fight, would you go after her?"

"Yeah, eventually," I said slowly, "once I got some sense knocked into me." I wouldn't go after her immediately after we got into a fight, mainly because I was usually too stuffed up with pride for my own good. But I also knew better than to leave Ray alone. She had a habit of getting herself into trouble when you weren't looking. Like a toddler or something.

"Do you think about her all the time, even when you try not to?"

I swallowed thickly at Al's question. Okay, the questions he was asking were starting to take an angle that I wasn't quite sure I liked. He was trying to talk me into believing that I loved her just because I had said yes to a couple of questions.

"Aw, come on Al," I groaned. "You're starting to sound like some weird girly poll."

Al crossed his arms. "Brother..."

I cowered slightly. I knew that tone. It was not a good tone to hear from Al. It was the "Do what I say or there will be hell to pay" tone of voice. It was best to just submit and obey when Al took on that tone of voice.

"Oh, fine," I said with a heavy sigh. "Yes."

Al nodded and uncrossed his arms again. "Does spending time with her make you feel happy?"

What sort of a question was that? Why wouldn't I enjoy spending time with her? She was my friend, wasn't she?

I chuckled nervously and scratched the back of my head. "Yeah."

"Even when you're annoyed with her, do you still care about her just as much as you always do?"

I frowned and tried to remember times when I had been annoyed with Ray. I had gotten annoyed with her a few times, I could remember, but it had mostly been a sort of annoyed that came from either me worrying about her getting herself into danger, or her not caring for herself properly. Of course I still cared about her the same when I was annoyed like that. I mostly was annoyed _because_ I cared, really.

"Yeeeah..." I said slowly.

"And say, just for a minute, that you were dating and she shows up an hour late for your weekly date," he said, and I stared at him with wide eyes. _Why_ was he setting up the hypothetical of me and Ray dating? Why? Didn't he know how many bad paths that would lead my brain down? "What would you be thinking happened to her?"

Unfortunately, my brain was still trying to wrap around the idea of me and Ray dating. I squirmed. "Aaal..."

He crossed his arms and stared at me. I felt the blood rush from my face. Uh... what was the question again? What would I think had happened to her if she showed up late to a date? I frowned.

Hell, she was _dating_ me! Hypothetically, of course. But anyway, if she was dating me, who _cared_ if she showed up late to a date, it was still a _date_!

I mentally slapped myself.

_Bad Ed. No. No love. Bad. _

I sighed and tried to figure out an answer to Al's question. Well, I'd be worried about something happening to her if she didn't have anyone making sure she didn't get into any trouble. I pouted slightly and looked away from Al.

"I'd probably be hoping seriously that she hadn't been hurt or kidnapped or something along the way, and that her watch was just slow or something," I said slowly, and he nodded.

"You wouldn't be worrying that she was out with another guy?"

I frowned. "What?" Another guy? But Al had said we were dating, hadn't he? Why would she see another guy if we were dating? I wouldn't be seeing some other girl.

"See?" Al said with a chuckle and a shake of his head. "You're totally in love."

I frowned and shook my head. "Am not!"

Al stared at me for a minute, then sighed and shook his head. "Fine, Brother," he said, and I blinked in surprise. I had been expecting something more along the lines of "Are too!" instead of an agreement. "Would you get angry if someone insulted me in front of you?"

Wait, what? Where was he going with that? I shrugged. Still, if someone went and insulted Al while I was around...

"I'd punch their face in!" I said with a smirk.

"Do you like spending time with me?"

"Of course I do, Al!" He was my freaking brother/best friend extraordinaire, why wouldn't I enjoy spending time with him?

"When we get in a fight, do you come after me?"

I frowned, trying to remember a time I hadn't gone after Al. But all I could remember was that after a few minutes of stewing, I had always wandered off to find Al after we had fought.

"Every time!" I answered.

Do you feel happy when you get to spend time with me?

"Duh!" He was my best friend and the only family I had, why wouldn't I be happy when I got to hang out with him?

"Even when you're annoyed with me, do you still care about me?"

"Aw, come on, Al, of course!" Why wouldn't I? I had given a freaking arm to keep him around, did he honestly think I would stop caring because about a stupid little argument?

"So are you going to say you don't love me, Brother?"

I opened my mouth and paused. "...What?"

I had been backed into a corner, I knew it, I just wasn't entirely sure _what_ corner I had been backed into.

"Different person, same questions, and basically the same answers," Al said slowly. I frowned. I hadn't even realized that he had asked the same questions about himself that he had asked about Ray. "You answered positively for all the questions about Rebecca, and you did the same when they were about me. So, if you don't love Rebecca, then you must not love me either."

Uh oh. That sort of sentence was a red warning flag when it came to Al. That was the reason why I always went after Al whenever we got in a fight. If you left Al alone with his thoughts for too long, he could get incredibly negative.

"Al, don't talk like that," I said quickly. "You're my only family. Of course I love you. Just not..." Well, I cared for him a lot, but he was my best friend and brother. And being my brother kinda stopped me from loving him like... _that_.

"No, of course not," Al said with a chuckle. "That's the way you love Rebecca."

"I don't—!"

"Oh, and by the way," Al started, cutting me off mid-sentence, "Rebecca cares about you just as much as you care about her."

I froze and stared at him. "Sh-She does?" She actually liked me like _that_? How did he know? Was he just lying to try and trick me? But Al hated lying.

"Yeah," Al said with a nod of his head. "She's just not sure if you feel the same way, and she's kind of shy, so she hasn't said anything yet. She's waiting to see if you make the first move, but once you do make that first move, she'll be all over you."

I knew that the worst Al ever got to with lying was exaggerating the truth when he felt that the circumstances were crucial. So even if he was doing that, there was still a grain of truth to what he was saying. I opened my mouth to try and say something, then closed it again, and then opened it again.

"A-All-All over me?" I finally managed to choke out. Pathetic. Al nodded, and then I realized that whether he had been exaggerating or not, he had been tricking me into giving something away.

"Mmhm," Al said, and I swore I could hear the smirk in his voice. "You answer all the questions positively, and then you react like that to the idea that she likes you back." He paused, then glanced down for a second, and then looked back up at me.

"I don't think you just love her like a sister, Brother," he said in an amused tone. I frowned for a split second as I tried to figure out what he was so amused by, and then it clicked in my head. I jolted and stared at Al with wide eyes. I expected that sort of thing from pervy Thomas at the cafe, not from my supposedly innocent little brother.

"AL!" I yelped and then crossed my legs. He chuckled and shook his head.

"Brother, things would be a lot easier if you would at least admit your feelings to yourself."

I frowned. "But, Al—"

"Rebecca Elric," Al said, cutting me off in mid thought. I blinked and let the words wash over me, and then grinned slightly. If her last name was Elric, then that meant that she had—

I frowned.

_Bad Ed, bad. No love. No. Bad. No marriage. No. _

I shook my head and glared at Al. "That doesn't mean anything!"

"Sure it does," Al said firmly. The tint of amusement in his voice only annoyed me even more.

"But I don't—!"

"You don't love Rebecca?" Al said, and I shut my mouth. It sounded even worse coming from him. "Then what is she to you? Just a friend and nothing more?"

Well, that sounded like less than what she actually was to me. She was... different, but just because she was different didn't mean I was in love with her.

"Well, no, she's..." I stammered and tried to figure out a way to phrase my feelings. "She's a really close friend I happen to find attractive." Maybe I would fall in love with her after we had dated for five years or something (if we ever were to date, though that seemed ludicrous), but you didn't just fall in love right away. We hadn't even had our first kiss yet. And even though I had had some pretty pervy thoughts about Ray, I knew that wanting (or even having (but that wasn't going to happen)) sex didn't mean you were actually in love with someone.

"Winry's attractive too. Do you think of Winry the same way you think of Rebecca?"

"Well..." I trailed off and frowned. That hardly seemed fair. I had been friends with Winry for as long as I could remember. I knew she was attractive, and I had once long ago considered what it would be like if we were to date, but I had never dwelled on the thought like I had with Ray. I glared at Al. He was making too many logical arguments. He needed to be chewed out.

"Al!" I yelled at him, but before I had a chance to launch into some rant, he cut me off.

"What, do you not like me exposing your feelings, even if the only one I'm exposing them to is _you_?" he said, and I sighed. Great, so he was cutting me off mid-lecture just so he could lecture me himself. Some little brother.

"But... Al, I..." I trailed off, trying to figure out a way to convince him that I wasn't in love. "I've only known Ray, what, three weeks?"

"Doesn't matter," he said firmly, and I frowned.

Yeah, great, just shoot down my argument by saying that it doesn't matter. Nice argument, little brother.

"What do you mean it doesn't matter?!" I snapped back at him. Okay, maybe not the classiest way to respond, but I was starting to get frazzled by the whole thing.

"Ever heard of love at first sight, Brother?" he said, with that same tone that held a hint of a smirk. I really hated that tone of voice sometimes.

"It doesn't exist!" I snapped at him. "And besides, I didn't love her at first—"

"Oh, so you love her _now_ instead?"

Stupid little know it all.

"I didn't say that!" I snapped at him.

"You don't have to say it, Brother," Al said with a sigh. "Stop being stupid."

I wasn't being stupid, was I? No, he was the one trying to talk me into believing that I was in love. "But—!"

"Fine then," Al said, and I could tell that he was getting exasperated with me. "How would _you_ define love, Brother?"

I frowned. Define love? What kind of a question was that? I had no idea how to define love. It was something crazy and emotional that liked to spit in the face of logic. "Love?" I said and ran a hand through my bangs. "It's... uh... when a man and a woman like each other a lot, enough to get married."

"Try harder," Al said firmly, and I made a face. I had been hoping for too much to hope that he would accept a sad answer like that. "Give me at least three sentences."

Ugh, not the three sentences trick. Al always told me to give him three sentences whenever I was being reluctant to talk about my feelings. He said that I always managed to show a deeper part of myself by the third sentence. Fine and dandy for him, but I was the one who had to think up the three sentences, and I hated it.

"Aw, Al..." I whined, and he crossed his arms again. I swallowed a lump in my throat. He wasn't going to let me squirm my way out of anything.

"Eeegh... Fine," I said with a sigh and then ran my hand through my bangs again. "Love is... love is when you really care about someone deeply, enough that you would give you life for theirs." Okay, that sounded good. Only one sentence though. Ugh. I still had to give him two more sentences before he would let me off the hook.

"Because... Because your life wouldn't matter if they weren't alive anyway, and somehow you can accept not having a life of your own if you know that they still have a chance at finding happiness." I grinned slightly. That one had been downright poetic. But no matter how good it got, Al still wanted one last stupid sentence. I really hated the three sentences game.

"It's when... when you take some of your own life force and completely hand it over to someone else and let them absorb it until..." I paused and ran a hand through my bangs with a sigh. "...until they're just a part of you, and you can't stand not having them around."

I finished off the sentence in something that was getting close to a whisper. Al nodded in approval, while I thought over what I had said. It was a pretty good definition for love, but how had I been able to define love like that? How did I even know that it actually was a good definition? I had actually felt everything I had described in my definition. Over Al? Well, it kinda applied to him, but it wasn't exactly what I had been thinking when I had been saying the definition. I had been thinking about—

I coughed and ran a hand through my bangs. He had finally gotten me. I had gone and said that those feelings were what I considered to be love, and then I had realized that those same feelings were connected to how I thought of Ray. Which only led to one conclusion. Check and mate.

"...Holy shit," I choked out, and I swore I could actually _see _Al smirk for a split second. He knew he had gotten me. "I-I-I... I love her."

It was harder to say out loud than I would have thought, but at the same time, something clicked into place when I said it. It was true. I was so screwed. Al reached over and patted my leg.

"It's okay, Brother," he said with a chuckle. I stood up and glared at him.

"N-No, it's not!" I stammered quickly. "I'm not supposed to fall in love! I'm supposed to be getting you your body back! I-I have things to concentrate on! I can't just go gaga over some girl!"

Al chuckled. Maddening.

"Well, for one, we already seem to be close to actually finding a way to get our bodies back," he said, and I frowned. Yeah, once we actually figured out how to make our wishes work. "For two, no one ever said you can't balance your studies and have a girlfriend. And for three, you already have been gaga, Brother."

I had been gaga? Why had no one told me? I shook my head.

_Get a grip, get a _grip_! You're going nuts just because the word love has been thrown around a couple times! Get your head out of the clouds and _think_, State Alchemist! _

"No, I can't balance studies and a girl!" I said as I started pacing and tugging at my braid. "Haven't you seen the trends? All the child prodigies go stupid as soon as they get their first girlfriend!"

Al tilted his head to one side. "Where did you ever get that statistic?"

"It's just—" I trailed off and threw my hands in the air. "It's well known, Al!" Curse him going and throwing off my arguments like that.

"Well, even if that is true, that's just because it's their first time getting a girlfriend," Al said with yet another sigh. He seemed to be doing a lot of those. "There are plenty of smart men out there giving speeches on very intelligent papers they've written and then going home to their wives at night."

"But..." I trailed off and hung my head. Al put a hand on my shoulder.

"Tell her how you feel, Brother."

I snapped my head back up and stared at Al with wide eyes. "No way! I can't!"

"Yes, you can. You have to tell her."

Have to? Since when did admitting to feelings become a requirement of love? I shook my head.

"I can't, Al!" I said quickly and jerked my shoulder away from his hand. No way could I go down and just say that to her. "I can't, I can't, I can't!"

"Why?"

"I just can't!" I snapped at him, the turned away and fiddled with my braid. "She'll reject me!"

"Brother, give her a chance," Al said with a sigh. "She at least cares about you enough to not smash you into the ground with a rejection. She'd phrase it as nicely as possible."

"But—"

"Tell her, Brother." I squeezed my eyes shut and clenched my hands into fists. Well, it made me feel slightly better. Slightly.

"I can't," I whispered.

"Well, if you don't tell her, I will." I froze and stared at Al with huge eyes. He would seriously tell Ray that I had admitted to being in love with her?

"You can't," I croaked out.

"I can. And I will."

"She won't have any reason to believe you."

"Yeah, so she'll go to you asking lots of questions that you'll have to answer," he said, and I swallowed thickly. He was right. And it would be a little awkward to deal with all those questions. "And you'll have to either lie to Rebecca's face or tell her the truth."

I swallowed another lump in my throat. "...Al..."

"It needs to come out, Brother," he said firmly. "So go down to the living room, look her in the eye and tell her you love her."

"I... I..." I couldn't say any more than that. I couldn't even imagine admitting my feelings to Ray. I didn't _want_ to admit them. Why was Al making me?

Al stared at me for a minute, then grabbed my collar and lifted me up. I yelped in surprise and kicked against him. He ignored me and started dragging me towards the door. I started yelling a constant stream of curses and threats while I struggled against him, but as much as I hated to admit it, Al was a lot bigger and more metallic than me. Fighting against him was futile.

Honestly, to anyone who had ever met us before, they would have thought that someone had just insulted my height and that Al was dragging me away from the person I wanted to kill.

"Hey, hey, hey!" I yelped. "Let go! Let me at least be more dignified than that!"

Al paused, but still didn't let go of my collar. "Will you go down there and tell her if I don't drag you down there myself?"

I paused. He really wasn't going to let me off the hook. I was either going to have to tell Ray on my own, have Al tell her, or have Al drag me down to the living room to tell her myself. There wasn't going to be any escape now that it was out.

I let out a heavy sigh and then nodded. It was the best choice. Al nodded and let go of my collar.

I took a deep breath and closed my eyes. It wasn't going to be easy, I knew that much, but Al wasn't going to let me out of it. I opened my eyes with a sigh and then started walking down towards the living room.

I can't remember another time where the walk from my bedroom to the living room seemed so long. Each step felt like a huge accomplishment, not just one of many steps I had done a million times before. And it didn't help that I could hear Al's clanking footsteps behind me.

"Uh, Ray, look, I need to talk to you about—" I started once I was three steps away from the bottom of the stairs, I took a deep breath and looked up, and then noticed that Ray wasn't there. "—something..." I finished weakly and then turned around to look at Al.

"She's not here," I croaked out. I knew that her not being in the living room still wouldn't get Al off my case. He wouldn't stop trying to get me to say I loved her until she had died or something. And even if she did die, Al would probably make me say it to her grave for conclusion or something like that.

"Well, I'm sure she's not too far," Al said with a glance around. "Maybe she went out to the backyard."

I nodded and then glanced down. Ray's backpack was on the floor beside the sofa. I had never seen her go anywhere more than a block away from where she was staying without the stupid orange thing. So that had to mean that wherever she was, she was close. I looked back up at Al and headed for the backyard with him.

The backyard was empty too. Along with the kitchen, all the other bedrooms, the shop, and even the attic, which I didn't think Ray even knew existed. We returned to the living room after searching the entire house, as if she would suddenly show up in the first place we had checked once we had checked everywhere else. But big surprise, it was still empty. I ran a hand through my bangs and fell backwards onto the sofa.

"Where did she—?" I started. My voice sounded horrible. I had never seen Ray disappear without someone else disappearing with her. Well, aside from the time when everyone's memories of her had been wiped clean. And I had reached about the same level of panic then.

"Don't worry, she probably just went for a walk, Brother," Al said as he placed a hand on my shoulder. "Come on, let's go find her." I sighed and stood up.

"Something bad happened," I muttered. "I can feel it."

* * *

We searched through the night. We had first discovered that Ray was missing at about 9:00. Neither of us was really sure how long we had been talking, but we guessed that she had first left the house at about 7:00, at the earliest. After an hour of searching on our own, Al and went back to the house and woke up Teacher to help us look.

I had adrenaline pounding through my veins. I couldn't shake the feeling that something bad had happened to Ray, I just didn't know what the something bad was. The adrenaline kept me up longer than I would have normally been able to stay awake, but I couldn't help it when I finally collapsed from exhaustion at four in the morning.

I was unconscious for what happened after that point, but my guess was that Al carried me back to the house, put me on the sofa to sleep, and then went back out to search on his own. For once, not being able to sleep was actually a perk.

As for me, after about two hours of sleep, I started having nightmares. Mostly along the lines of starting out as a happy memory of mom, who would then morph into a spluttering pile of bones and blood, and then, when I looked closer, I would realize that the pile of gore wasn't actually mom, but Ray instead.

After having three of those nightmares in a row, I decided that it would be better if I just stayed awake instead of trying to sleep. Two hours of solid sleep plus another hour of half-sleep was better than nothing, at least.

So I was awake at seven in the morning when Al walked back into the house with a heavy sigh. I didn't like the idea of what a heavy sigh meant. I turned over and looked at Al.

"Did you—?" I started, and Al shook his head. I grunted and squeezed my eyes shut again. I didn't like not knowing where she was or how she was doing. And I kept having that nagging feeling in my gut. Something was wrong. Something worse than even the worst case scenario of some creepy guy slitting her throat in an alley. And I couldn't think of much worse than death, but I had a feeling that my nightmares tied into it somewhat.

Al took a couple steps closer to me. "Brother, I'm sure she'll—"

I stood up and glared at him. "What? She'll just suddenly turn up? What if she's actually gone? What if she's dea—" I stopped in mid-sentence, choking on my own words. Here I had a gut feeling that there was something worse than death connected to Ray, and I hadn't even completely thought about just how devastating her death would be. What would I do if I found out that Ray died the day after I realized I loved her?

I clenched my hands into fists, and then turned and let out my emotion onto the only other target in the room. My automail hand made a clanging sound as it hit Al's chest plate. Al didn't move away from me, or even flinch. He just stood there and let me hit him.

"Dammit, Al!" I snapped at him, and then hit him again. "Why did you have to go and make me realize I love her right before she disappeared?!" Al didn't say anything, so I hit him again, harder.

"Do you realize how torn I feel?!" I yelled at him, and when he didn't answer, I hit him again. "Why the hell did you do this to me?!"

I raised my arm to hit him again, but before I had even gotten halfway close to hitting him, my arm went limp and fell to my side. I took in a shuddering breath and then banged my head against Al. He was cold. It felt nice.

"Brother..." Al sounded like he wanted to say something, but also didn't know what to say. I didn't bother looking up at him. Too much effort. I just wanted to melt into the floor. As if he could hear my thoughts, Al then wrapped his arms around my shoulders and picked me up slightly. Enough so that I wasn't slouching anymore.

After a couple minutes, I realized that the sniffling I was doing wasn't just a runny nose, it was tears that I was trying to stifle without even knowing they were tears. I reached up and wiped my nose on my sleeve.

Yeah, gross, I know, but I didn't feel like I had even enough energy to go get a stupid little hankie.

"I-I-I..." I started, then trailed off with a weak sniffle and shaky breath. "Dammit," I muttered. "Why am I even crying? I never... I never cry. Why cry now?"

My voice sounded pathetic to my own ears. Weak, sniffly, and trembling. The great Fullmetal Alchemist reduced to a quivering wet mess. And all just because of one girl. And that was exactly why I hadn't wanted to fall in love in the first place. It always happened the same way. As soon as I realized I loved someone, something bad happened to them. And it always hit me like a boulder to the groin.

"You're crying because you're worried," Al said softly. "It shows you care."

Wow, how pathetic. I had to have my brother telling me just _why_ I was crying. I was too upset to even understand _why_ I was upset.

I sniffled and nodded. "Some-Sometimes she... she reminds me of mom. I don't want her to..."

At that point, I wasn't even conscious of what I was saying. I was just saying all the bad things I had been thinking about while I had been alone. At that point, I didn't feel like I had any farther to fall. I was already a pathetic sniveling mess, and little more mess and a little more sniveling couldn't make it much worse.

Al tightened his grip on me. "She'll be okay, Brother."

"I... nngh." I started nodding, then trailed off and winced. I wanted to believe that she would be okay, but the feeling in the pit of my stomach seemed to have a personal mission to keep me uneasy.

"What?" Al said. I pulled away from him and wiped at my eyes. Stupid tears.

"...eh... I just... I want to believe that, but... nngh." I sighed and looked away from Al for a half a minute before I looked back and tried to talk again. "She left her backpack. And she went alone. She doesn't do either of those unless she's upset or thinking she'll be right back. And I have this bad feeling..."

"Brother—" Al paused for a minute, then tilted his head to one side. I turned to look at what he was staring at. "What's that thing next to her backpack?" I frowned and took a few steps closer to the backpack.

I had never had much idea what Ray kept in her backpack. After figuring out her period within the first day of knowing her, I had decided that I didn't want to go snooping around in her backpack.

It was a crumpled piece of paper. I bent over and picked it up and turned back to Al.

"It's just a piece of paper," I said, and then something clicked in my head, and I looked down at the crumpled paper with new hope. "May-Maybe she left a note explaining where she went!" Al nodded eagerly at the suggestion, so I turned back to the paper and straightened it out.

The note was definitely in Ray's handwriting. And the beginning started with "Dear Ed," so that seemed hopeful. I took a deep breath and started reading.

_Dear Ed,_

_Right now you don't know who I am, but I have a feeling we will end up meeting someday. I can't put into words all the different thoughts inside of me, but I'm definitely going to try, okay?_

_First of all, you need to realize that people all around you care about you—yes, even love you—even with all the different mistakes you've made over the years. You are a good person, truly. I know that plenty of other people would have given up on the Philosopher's Stone long before you, even if it were for their brother's benefit. _

_Secondly, please know that everything will eventually work out. It may be hard at times, but you keep managing to make good choices even when pressed into a stressful solution. When you make good choice after good choice, even if you have had a few bad choices along the way, you'll usually end up with something good._

_Thirdly, just think about how lucky you already are. You're still alive and healthy, you have a younger brother who admires and looks up to you, you're smart, you have a job that lets you access important information and a boss that lets you have more free rein than he probably is supposed to, and you usually manage to have three square meals a day. Even in the rough patches of life, there are still good parts. Believe me, I know, even though my rough patches are probably much smoother than yours. _

_Just try to have some fun even if life has got you down, okay? _

_Good luck!_

I sighed and looked up at Al. The note was old. She had mentioned that I didn't know who she was, which meant that she had written the note before we had even met. I ran a hand through my bangs and held the note out to Al.

"She... It doesn't explain where she went," I said with a sigh. "She wrote it before she even met us."

"Oh," Al said in a downtrodden voice. He then took the paper from my hand and started reading it for himself.

I closed my eyes and pressed a hand against my forehead. We weren't any closer to finding Ray. And she had been missing from seven at night until seven in the morning. Twelve hours. A whole half a day.

She would have left if she hadn't been alone and bored. And she wouldn't have been alone if I hadn't gone storming off to my room and having Al follow me. I was supposed to protect her, and she was out there, alone, and who knows how hurt.

_People all around you care about you—yes, even love you—even with all the different mistakes you've made over the years._

I took in a shaky breath. Had she known way back when she had written that note that someday I would read that note needing to hear from her that she loved me too?

No, of course she hadn't known that. The note had been crumpled, anyway. She probably hadn't even thought it was that good. But—

_Yes, even love you_

She said that people all around me loved me even if I had made mistakes. And sure, she had written it before she had actually met me, but I had seen her show mercy to people who had tried to kill her. If she could love someone like that, then there was a chance that she loved me too. And no way was I about to let that chance slip through my fingers.

"Love..." I muttered.

Al looked up from the note and stared at me. "What did you say, Brother?"

"Hm?" I snapped out of my thoughts and forced myself back to the present. "Oh, just... Eh, I don't know. I just thought that... Well, I mean, I don't think that sitting at home crying and wringing my hands is going to help Ray much if she really is in trouble. I haven't sat down and thrown temper tantrums over trouble before, and I don't really see why I should start just because the word 'love' has been thrown around a couple times."

Al was completely still for a moment before he finally managed to say, "Huh?"

Obviously he hadn't been expecting an answer like that from me. I sighed and tried to figure out what to do next. I had a chance that Ray loved me back. And I had a bad feeling that she was in trouble.

_Everything will eventually work out. It may be hard at times, but you keep managing to make good choices even when pressed into a stressful solution._

I ran a hand through my bangs. "I just... ah... She has a point, that's all," I said, and Al glanced down at the note and then back up at me. "The most I can do is to make the best choice I know of, and as long as I keep living my life as well as I can, then things will work out in the best possible way they can. And right now, the best choice I know of is to find that girl and tell her that I... I... love her."

The words seemed to slip more easily from my mouth the second time I said them. I grinned. Maybe the third time, they would be even easier to say.

Al nodded enthusiastically and handed the note back to me. "Yeah! You've got it!"

I nodded and took the note from him, then folded it and put it in my pocket. "Then let's go out and find her."

* * *

_**Author's Note:**_

And just like that, the Lesson of the Day is gone again as soon as it came back. -pouts-

Well, here's Ed's part of the timeline at the same point as Rebecca at the beginning of last chapter. So while she was trying on clothes, he was coming to terms with love.

I myself find it funny how to this day, this story tends to mimic my own life before I even know it's going to do so. I planned out this chapter who knows how long ago, and when I wrote it, I essentially went missing with my own friends. I really hope I'm not just screwing up my life so I know just how to write scenes in Wish Granted. Either that, or Wish Granted is predicting my own future, in which case, I am so screwed.

Blah. Anyway. Things are a mess on my side of the cyber net, so I don't know how updates are going to go for now. I've had this chapter written for months and haven't been able to post it. Meanwhile, I've been so stuck on chapter 24 that it's not even funny. I'm not going to abandon this story as long as I'm still able to write at all, but right now, I just don't feel like I can write. Period. Which sucks. Especially since I'm not sure how to fix it. I just feel horrible all over as of now and not really up to doing anything. Which might just last for today, or might last for three months. Who knows.

Well... yeah. So, anyway, I don't know when or _if_ I'm going to finish the next chapter, so bear with me, guys, heh. Sorry.


	24. Sidestory

Sidestory — A Double Entendré

"Look, all I'm saying is that it doesn't make sense!"

I sighed and shook my head before I walked into the living room. Sure enough, Brother and Rebecca were staring each other down as if they had laser vision. Another argument. Those two really had to learn how to have more... _mature _conversations.

"What are you freaking talking about?" Brother snapped back at her. I decided to wait a couple minutes so that I would actually know what they were arguing about. Then it would be easy to convince them that it was a stupid argument.

"Look, it's always the same!" Rebecca said, and then lifted her hand up and started ticking off her fingers for emphasis. "Harry Potter did it, Percy and the Olympians did it, even Artemis Fowl did it!"

I raised my eyebrows (At least, the armor equivalent of eyebrows, though it's easier to just call them eyebrows, honestly). I had no idea who Harry, Percy, Artemis, and these Olympians were, much less why Brother and Rebecca were talking about how all of those people _did it_.

Had Rebecca and Brother finally gotten their feelings out to one another? And without outside help? It would be a miracle if they had.

"Who the hell are those people?" Brother yelled. He had a talent for yelling. Loudly. "And why does it matter if those people have done it? That doesn't mean that we have to do it!"

I started edging towards the door. Maybe it would be better if I didn't butt into their argument. Maybe this was one argument they had to realize was stupid on their own. Or maybe it was one of their few arguments that _wasn't_ stupid.

"I'm just saying, it's always threes!" Rebecca snapped.

Wait, _threes_? I half wanted to stay out of curiosity, and half wanted to run out of that room as fast as I could.

"Why does it have to be threes? Why not two, or even one?!" Brother snapped back at him. I sighed. It probably wasn't a good idea to argue to your girlfriend about the power of one, but that was Brother for you.

"Because!" Rebecca said with a stomp of her foot. "It's just always three, don't ask me why! Three is just a solid number!"

Brother stared at her for a minute, then sighed and rolled his eyes. "Well, why doesn't this _rule_ work for us?"

"Because I can't figure out who the third is! They always have these standard traits, and I don't know who the third is!"

Brother sighed. "What are the traits?"

"Well, there's always the male hero protagonist. Usually a brilliant prodigy that's been thrust into something a lot bigger than he expected, and he sort of blunders but still kicks everyone's butts," Rebecca said, seeming to calm down for the first time since I had walked into the room. Something about explaining something made her deflate, like a balloon. I had to hand it to Brother, he was better than anyone else at calming Rebecca down, even if she was talking about something way out there.

"Okay, so who's our hero?" Brother said with a sigh.

"Well, duh, that's you, Mr. State-Alchemist-at-age-twelve," Rebecca said with a small grin.

"Eleven," Brother corrected, but I could see him puffing up with pride. Nothing meant more to him than a glowing compliment from Rebecca, especially a compliment that actually used the word "hero" in it. He would be insufferable for at least a week, if not a month.

"Whatever. Then there's the smart girl, usually the bookworm, who's not necessarily the one in all the prophecies and such, but she's determined and always helping the hero out of tight spots."

Brother grinned. "That would be you."

I nearly laughed. Brother had actually complimented a girl without any sarcasm in his voice or anything! Rebecca really was doing him a world of good. Rebecca smiled slightly and bit her lip.

"Well, kinda. I fit the part close enough..." Rebecca trailed off, and Brother smiled at her. They had actually gone from an argument to a sweet moment. Those two actually were starting to grow up, thanks to each other.

"So what about the third?" Brother said, and I snapped back to the issue they were actually talking about. I was having a hard time believing that Rebecca and Brother were actually talking about a _threesome_, but...

"See, that's where I'm stuck," Rebecca said with a heavy sigh. "The third one is always a guy, and usually the hero's best friend who's always needing an extra hand to get out of tough scrapes. He's the comic relief."

The two were completely silent for a minute. Then they turned to me, seeming to notice my presence for the first time since I had entered the room. They both had thoughtful looks, as if they were trying to figure out whether or not I could pull off the comic relief role.

I ran from the room with a yelp. I had no wish to be part of... of... _whatever_ they were planning.

* * *

XD Yeah. My brother convinced me to read The Lightening Thief, since he was really excited to go see the movie when it came out. And I noticed that it followed this same trio of heroes format that so many other books follow. And then I started wondering if Wish Granted followed that same trio format, and this situation popped into my head. Poor Al. I guess he really is the comic relief, at least just this once, lol.

Al was also slightly based off my brother for this story, haha. The boy is terrified of anything to do with sex, and yet he has a dirtier mind than me! -laughs and shakes head-

And this isn't really part of the story itself, just a funny little thing on the side. Like Ed and Roy's fight in the manga. I originally wrote this the day before The Lightening Thief hit theateres, but I kind of forgot I had it sitting around, lol. I've actually made progress on the next chapter though, and it should be out hopefully this week.


	25. Chapter 24

_**24. I Love You**_

It had been a full two days before we finally managed to find Ray. I'm not telling you how I spent those two days because you really don't want to know. I was a pathetic mess, either out searching frantically for Ray, or sitting curled up on my bed at Teacher's place because I had been told to "give it a rest."

But then we actually found her. I'm not even sure how I managed to figure out where she was, but it was probably just a lucky hunch. She was on the same island Al and I had trained at years ago, lying stretched out on the beach.

I saw her while we still were in the water. I could see a small lump on the beach, and somehow, I just knew it was her. But then again, I had been running up to girls that I thought were her constantly for the past few days, leaving Al to apologize for the confusion in my wake.

But this time, I was more certain than I had been with any of the other girls. I mean, no one went out to Yock Island unless they were looking for something or were just plain crazy. Or both, like me and Al. The fishermen took their boats out all around the island, but hardly anyone ever set foot on it. It was supposed to be too dangerous for anyone. But doesn't it make such a pretty picture for postcards?

So what girl would be lying stretched out on the beach of Yock island unless she knew something about it? Not to mention that I could see her mostly brown hair. Almost all of the blond dye had washed out, and I hadn't made any correction to change it. So what if people thought she was different? She _was_ different. She was special.

I jumped ut of the boat and started running—as best I could—through the water to her, ignoring Al's calls. She wasn't moving from her spot on the beach. Not even a twitch, or a flick to get the hair out of her eyes. It worried me.

"Ray?" I called out. Still no movement. And I was close enough to tell that it was definitely her. She would have recognized my voice. "Ray! Rebecca! Rebecca, answer me!" I tried to run across the sandy beach to her, but my feet stumbled over the soft surface, and I had to fling my arms out in order to stay standing. Stupid sand.

Then I was finally at her side. Her eyes were closed. Not a good sign. I pressed my finger against her neck to check for a pulse. At the same moment I felt a strong beat against my fingers, her eyes snapped open. I started breathing again. She was alive.

"Don't ever do that again, Ray," I breathed. She blinked. "You scared me. Do you know how long we were out on the streets searching for you? Don't do that. I nearly died of worry." Okay, so I sounded like a parent lecturing their kid after they had gone and gotten lost, but I didn't care. I was just glad to know where Ray was again.

"Sorry Ed," Ray croaked, and I snapped out of my thoughts. "But I'm not really very good at reading lips."

I frowned. "But why would you need to—" Then it hit me. "Ray, can you hear me?"

Ray stared at me blankly. Okay, she was either playing a really stupid game, or she couldn't hear at all and was _horrible_ at reading lips. As I tried to decide which one it was, Al walked up behind us.

"Rebecca!" he said, sounding just as relieved as me. Ray glanced up at Al and then back to me. "Don't go running off like that! You made everyone really worr—"

"She can't hear, Al," I said with a sigh. And Al didn't have any lips for her to even try reading, so conversation between the two of them would fail even more than it had failed between me and her.

"She can't hear?" Al repeated in a confused tone. "How did that happen?"

"I don't know," I sighed. "She apparently can't read lips, so it's hard to communicate with her." I looked back to Ray. She was watching us with an expression that looked like a cross between curiosity and frustration. I sighed. Time for charades, then.

I scratched the back of my head, trying to figure out how to communicate. I had never really talked to a deaf person before. I pointed at my ears, then made a slashing motion across my throat, and then shrugged. _Ears dead, what?_ I hoped that Ray would get it. At least she could still talk.

"I don't know how it happened," Ray said. Her voice cracked lightly. "I went out for a walk, and then Envy went and kidnapped me—"

"What? That bastard!" I snapped, but Ray didn't notice, since she wasn't looking at my face.

"—and then I woke up, and he had disguised himself as you, Ed—"

I clenched my fists tighter.

"—and then Hoenheim came and recused me, and he brought me here, and... and... he talked with me or something, I don't remember... and then I woke up and I couldn't hear anything, and then you were here."

"We should get you back to the house," I muttered. Ray cocked her head to one side, still not understanding me. I sighed and stood up, glancing over at Al.

What could have happened to Ray that was so traumatic that she would lose her hearing and wipe her mind? Plus Hoenheim had had something to do with it, that bastard. I could think of a couple things that could have happened to her, but I didn't want to think too firmly about any of them.

Not to mention that I knew that losing your hearing was one of those things that was kind of permanent. Those ear hairs that picked up vibrations didn't just grow back like any other hair. If her ears were just numbed from something, or if it was some sort of psychological thing, then Ray would be able to hear again someday, but if those little hairs had been destroyed, she would be deaf for... forever.

I winced. I didn't want to think about that. I just wanted to believe that her ears had been numbed from some sort of sonic boom or something. I glanced down at Ray again with a sigh. I pointed at myself and then flexed my bicep. _Ed protector. _She giggled and nodded. I couldn't help but give her a weak smile back. Even when I was upset, just having her around made me feel better. I really was better off with her.

I really was in love.

I sighed and shook my head. There would be a time to deal with that nonsense, and that time would come sometime after we had gotten Ray back to the Curtis household, where she would be safe, fed, and comfortable.

I pointed at Ray, then tapped my back, and then made a motion that I was carrying something heavy on my back. _You piggyback ride. _I wanted to add a _now_, but I wasn't sure how to make a motion for now, so I hoped Ray would just understand that I wasn't going to let her compromise on this. Ray giggled again and nodded, then stood up, walked over to me, and hopped up onto my back. I grunted slightly and grabbed her legs.

"Brother, are you sure you don't want me to—"

I shot Al a dirty look. He snickered.

"Okay then, just don't wear yourself out."

"Got it," I grunted as I walked towards the boat. Of course I wouldn't wear myself out, it wasn't like Ray was even _that_ heavy. Granted, heavier than I had expected, but I hadn't carried many girls around in my lifetime. Most of the girls I had given piggyback rides to hadn't even had more than one digit to their age.

Except Winry, but Winry had muscles from lugging around automail all the time. I expected her to be a bit heavier. And so help me, if she reads this, I'll be a dead man. Muscle weight and fat weight don't seem to have any difference in her mind. Even though muscles weigh more, so she really shouldn't be upset.

I was snapped out of my thoughts of Winry and weight by Ray snuggling her head against my shoulder. I jerked slightly and tried to keep myself together. She felt warm. And soft. And the combination of warm and soft felt _really_ good. She sighed, and a puff of warm air tickled my neck.

"Ed, you're comfy."

Al snickered, and I shot him another glare. Never mind if Ray couldn't hear him laughing, but I could hear it, and it was annoying. Ray tightened her arms around my chest, and I looked back to her.

"I really missed you, Ed," she whispered. "I was scared without you around. So let's not go getting separated again, okay?"

I let out a soft breath. Damn. It was like she knew that I had realized I was in love with her, and she was just pulling at my heartstrings for the hell of it. I had to tell her. I was going to go nuts if I didn't.

Of course, it figured that once I realized I was in love with Ray, that was the point in our relationship where she couldn't hear a word I said. Fate loved screwing with me. I couldn't even tell her how much I had missed her, how I had gone nuts without her around, and how I wasn't going to leave her if my life depended on it. So I settled for a nod. She squeezed me once, and then pressed her face against my neck. I trembled.

Damn that girl, didn't she have any idea what she was doing to me? I sighed and climbed into the boat, with Al balancing it for us. I set Ray down on one of the seats, and then sat down across from her.

She looked at me for a second with wide eyes, and I felt as if I had just kicked a puppy. I didn't even know what I had done wrong. Ray whimpered and held her arms out as if she were waiting for a hug from me. Al sniggered. Annoying little brother. I smiled at Ray and then moved so I was sitting on the seat beside her instead of across from her.

She made some sort of content little squeak, then grabbed my arm and snuggled up against me. I felt blood rush to my face. She was acting like a little kid clinging to her mommy after a bad dream. Just what had happened to her that she couldn't remember? I smiled slightly with a sigh and wrapped an arm around her shoulders. She grinned at me and wrapped her arms around my waist, then closed her eyes and laid her head against my chest.

My heart melted. I was tempted to tell Al to row slower than normal just to delay our arrival at the shore. I hadn't ever seen Ray acting like a scared little kid, but if she wanted me to be her protector/teddy bear, then I wasn't going to fight her on it.

"I wonder what happened to her," Al murmured as he started rowing. I looked down at her, realizing I had been unconsciously fingering a strand of her hair. Dammit. At least she didn't seem to care.

"Yeah, me too," I said with a sigh. "Whatever it was, it wasn't good."

And if there was any one person to blame for what had happened to Ray, I was going to kick. Their. Ass.

* * *

I carried Ray off the boat and all the way to the house. She kept her head snuggled against my neck like she had the first time I carried her. I had to mentally rein myself to make sure I didn't die of happiness.

When we got to the house, Teacher insisted on making sure Ray had a good meal. Watching Teacher's fondling over Ray, I had a suspicion that Teacher wanted a daughter just as much as she wanted a son (or two) she just showed love in an entirely different way to a girl.

I figured I would leave Ray in Teacher's capable hands and sneak off to my room to try and pull myself back together, but Ray changed my plans. As I started sneaking off, I felt a tug on my coat and looked over to her. She was holding onto the arm of my coat and giving me the most pitiful expression I thought I had ever seen in my entire life.

"Stay," she whispered. I hesitated for a minute, then sighed and sat down next to her. She wrapped her left arm around my right and continued to eat with her right hand. I sighed. I wanted to show her some sort of affectionate gesture, but I didn't know what sort of gesture I could show without it seeming romantic. And besides, Teacher, Sig, Mason and Al were all in the same room. They would definitely notice if I pulled something.

I frowned. Ah, screw it. Ray had worried me out of my mind, and I was going to show her affection if I felt like it. It wasn't as if there wasn't going to be much longer where she didn't know my feelings, anyway. And I wasn't going to let myself ever regret again that I hadn't done all I wanted to with her.

I leaned over and kissed the side of her head. Her hair was soft against my mouth. And her hair smelled like vanilla. Like fresh baked cookies. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath before I pulled away.

Ray was looking at me as if I had grown horns. I smiled weakly as I felt the blood start pumping to my face. Ray kept staring at me. I turned away.

"Good job, Brother!" Al yelled across the room. I shot him a glare. I was beginning to think that he was using the fact that Ray couldn't tell whether or not he was speaking to his advantage. Teacher was also watching me, and when she noticed that I had seen her, she smirked, nodded, and turned back to what she had been doing.

I groaned and hung my head. Was everyone in the house just waiting for me and Ray to start dating or something? I sighed and scooted half an inch closer to her, waiting for her to finish her food.

It only took her another couple minutes before she was done. She had practically inhaled the food on her plate. She then looked at me with an eager expression.

"Can we go outside?"

I frowned and glanced out the window. "It's dark out." She turned to look where I had, and seemed to understand what I had said without me needing to act my words out.

"I want to look at the stars," she said. I sighed and grinned at her. It was hard to say no to her when she was so eager and... cheerful. The girl had lost her hearing and she was the one cheering me up. I nodded. She stood up, grabbing my wrist and dragging me to my feet with her.

It was cold out, but that was to be expected. It was nearly fall, anyway, nearly winter, and the nights were always colder than the day. I glanced over to Ray to make sure she would be warm enough.

And then I noticed for the first time that Ray was wearing a set of clothes I had never seen her in. I had been too busy worrying about her to care about her clothes. A tight little yellow shirt, a tight pair of black pants, and a bright blue coat that looked eerily smilar to my coat, except it looked way better on her than it had ever looked on me. Not to mention that the bright shade of blue looked amazing on her. I swallowed thickly. I liked it better when I hadn't noticed what she was wearing.

While I was wrapped up in those thoughts, Ray let go of my wrist and flopped on the ground, motioning for me to do the same. I sighed and sat down next to her.

"Oh, I know what we should have brought," Ray said with a heavy sigh. I glanced over at her. "We should have gotten paper and a pencil. Then you wouldn't have to act everything out."

I grinned and shook my head. Paper and pencil would definitely make it easier. It was a good enough idea that I was actually considering running back inside to get it, but I didn't want to leave Ray.

Then I remembered how I kept my travelogue and a pencil in my coat pocket. I sat up and fished the two objects out and held them out triumphantly to Ray.

"Excellent!" she said with a laugh. "Now we just need something to talk about." I gripped the notebook and pencil tighter. I had something I wanted to talk about, but I wasn't sure that I wanted to write out my feelings to Ray.

"I wish I knew the constellations here," Ray said with a sigh. "I think the stars are different here from the ones back home." She then turned and looked at me. "Could you teach me any constellations?"

I flipped to an open page. _"Sure,"_ I wrote out, _"What constellations would you like to know?" _I then held the notebook out to Ray, who took a minute to read it, then grinned as if I had just wished her a happy birthday.

"Um..." she looked up at the sky, and then pointed. "What's that weird looking red star?" I rolled my eyes and started scribbling in the notebook.

"_That would be a planet, Ray, not a star. Dilligo. It's supposed to be a sign of love because of his red color." _It was just my luck that Dilligo would be out for the night. Probably some sort of omen.

Ray laughed when she read over my words. "Weird," she said as she looked back up at the sky. "We have a red planet in my world too, but it's supposed to be the god of war because it looks like a planet covered in blood. And the planet that represents love is a woman, not a man."

I swallowed thickly and nodded. I could see a woman being the goddess of love. Women were always driving men crazy, anyway. But by the logic of the crazy old myths, it was always the men who were competing for the woman's favor, so weren't the men the ones who actually knew about love more?

Ray turned and looked at me while I pondered over love gods and goddesses. "Hey, Ed?" I startled and looked over at her.

"Thanks for coming to find me," she said softly. I smiled at her. I couldn't help it. I was just glad to have her back, safe and... well, mostly sound, at least. "I really... needed you. Or something. I was just really glad when you showed up."

A strand of hair fell into her eyes as she talked. My hand twitched instinctively to brush it out of her face, but I restrained myself. That would be an affectionate gesture, and—

Wait, I had already gone and kissed the side of her head, why would it matter if I brushed some hair out of her eyes? Even friends brushed the hair out of one another's eyes sometimes, didn't they?

I reached out and brushed the hair away from Ray's eyes and tucked it behind her ear. Her skin was soft. Really, achingly soft. She closed her eyes as my fingers brushed against her face, and she opened them again when my hand pulled away from her.

And I swore, in that second as she stared me in the eyes, she knew. I didn't have to say anything, she just _knew _how much I loved her.

And then the moment was gone and she was back to being the sweet and innocent Ray I was used to, grinning at me as if there were no tomorrow. I sighed and turned back to the notebook.

"_Let's go inside," _I wrote. I hoped Ray wouldn't notice that the words were a little shakier than the last few sentences I had written. _"The mosquitos will eat us alive if we sit out here much longer."_

I shoved the book over to Ray to let her read, and after a minute, she nodded, handed the notebook back, and stood up with a sigh. I stood up with her and groaned slightly. I really needed to loosen up my muscles somehow. I had gone and knotted up my back from worrying over Ray.

I started walking towards the house, and as I walked, I felt a warm hand slip into mine. I swallowed a lump. She had even gone and grabbed my left hand instead of my right. I wondered briefly where my gloves had disappeared to, but I didn't really care. Her hand felt... nice.

"I need to talk to you. Alone," Ray whispered as she slipped into walking side-by-side with me. "Think we can slip away from Al and everyone so we can talk?"

I nodded blankly. If Al didn't let me hear whatever Ray wanted to talk about, I would strangle him. Which would be no easy feat when he was in a suit of armor, but I would manage it somehow.

* * *

Slipping away from Al turned out to be a piece of cake. When I said that Ray and I needed some time to talk alone, Al said that it was about time, and of course we could talk alone, just as long as he wouldn't feel embarrassed when he walked into the room a couple hours later.

I gave Ray a thumbs up and didn't bother trying to tell her the rest of what he said. So we went up to my bedroom to talk.

At first, I tried to sit on the bed across from Ray, but she grabbed me by the wrist before I could get too far away from her. Again. I grinned, shook my head, and sat on the bed next to her. I wondered what had gone and made her so clingy, but at the same time, I secretly enjoyed the fact that she wouldn't let me get more than three feet away from her.

"So..." Ray said slowly as she kicked her feet a couple a times. My mind flicked back to what felt like forever ago, when we had been walking to the festival in Bakenhaert, and she had broken the silence the same way. And then she had gone on to tell me about her boyfriend, and how he—

Boyfriend. I forgot about her boyfriend. Dammit. That screwed things up.

I shook my head. I wasn't going to worry about her boyfriend. The guy sounded like a jerk anyway, and he wasn't even in the same world as Ray.

"Ed, I had this really weird dream while I was with Envy," Ray said with a sigh. I frowned and turned to the notebook in my hands.

"_Weird dream? About what?"_ I scribbled out. Ray read over my shoulder as I wrote.

"Well... I was... at the Gate," she said slowly. I felt every muscle in my body. The Gate? Why the hell would she dream about—

Wait. The Gate. Payment. Ray had had something traumatic happen to her, enough to wipe her memories, and she couldn't hear any more. What if the Gate had taken her hearing as payment? But I didn't think Ray would go doing human transmutation. So why would she have opened the Gate?

"Your mom was there too," Ray said slowly. I didn't think it was possible for me to stiffen even more, but I did. "She was a Gatekeeper. And she said that I had once been a Gatekeeper with her—"

I frowned. What the hell? But there wasn't even point to me interrupting Ray to try and understand. She couldn't hear me, so she would just keep talking.

"—and then she showed me the Gate—"

I closed my eyes. There it was. I had no idea how she had managed to get into the Gate during her sleep, but then again, I had nightmares where I was back at the Gate almost every other night. I had always thought that they were just my mind running over bad memories, but maybe there was some actual truth to them and I had actually been at the Gate in my sleep. I had never actually gone _in_ the Gate in my dreams, after all. Just stood outside it while Truth mocked me.

"we—and... I just don't know what to make of it, and I don't know what she meant by saying that I was a Gatekeeper, but... I just don't know what to do... And I'm just really glad to have you around again, because you've always got some sort of plan... and... Ed..."

I blinked and looked over at Ray. She was crying. Full sobs with tears running down her face. Every time I had seen her cry before, she had tried to hold back her tears. And she had usually succeeded in keeping back some tears. I had never seen her do a full cry before. It was ripping my heart out to watch her.

I reached over and wrapped her in a tight hug. She was still for a moment before she reached out and hugged me back. I was positive that it was the tightest she had ever held me. Her tears got worse, though I wasn't sure how that was possible. I closed my eyes and put my left hand against the back of her head, rubbing at her hair. It felt like the right thing to do in the situation.

"It's okay," I said softly, but I hoped that she would feel the vibrations of my voice and know that I was speaking in as calm of a tone as I could manage. The situation felt like it was anything _but_ okay, what with Gates and Gatekeepers and mom and all that, but it was definitely okay to cry. I know I never felt like it was okay, but hey, I was a guy. It was my job to be the tough one. Ray was a girl. Girls were supposed to cry when things got bad. It was just the way things worked.

So we sat there for who knows how long. I kept rubbing Ray's hair, and she kept crying until her tears broke down into sniffles, and eventually, her sniffles gave way to silence. I expected her to pull away from me once she was done crying, but she didn't. And I didn't want to be the one to pull away from her. So we just sat there, with her face buried against my chest and my hand tangled in her hair.

"I can hear your heart beating," Ray croaked out after a couple minutes of silence. I chuckled. Even when she was upset Ray was so... Ray-ish. I had never heard Winry tell me she could hear my heart when she hugged me.

Ray pulled away from me and looked me in the eye. And for once, I could see the Ray that was hidden underneath all the cheerfulness, all the giggles, the skipping, the singing... It was the Ray that had been buried under all that. And the Ray that was hiding deep down was terrified. She knew that she was just a small person in a big world that could barely do anything, and it scared the hell out of her, because she wanted to do something to help people, and she could barely help herself. She laughed to cover her fear.

And I knew that she didn't see me as a small person in a big world that could barely do anything. She saw me as important, as someone who knew what he was doing, knew what he wanted, and wouldn't stop until he got it. An ordinary person who refused to be ordinary and was carving out a mark for himself. I was... a hero to her. I felt my lips start quirking into a small smile.

Somehow, I saw all of that just by looking her in the eyes that one time, one time where she let her shields down and let me in. I had a feeling that she probably saw something in my eyes as well, but she didn't say anything. It was a silent agreement between us. I let out a breath and grabbed the notebook.

"_My guess would be that the reason you can't hear is probably tied in to the Gate somehow,"_ I wrote out. Ray leaned over and read my writing as I wrote. _"I'm not sure how it all ties together yet, but we'll figure it out, okay?" _

"Okay," she croaked. I smiled and patted her arm.

"_Look, Ray, don't worry about it too much. No matter what happens, I'll be here. I'll—"_ I paused slightly, and then kept writing. _"—protect you. I'm not going to let anyone else hurt you if I can help it, okay?"_

I looked up at Ray. She was smiling at the paper. It was a smile I hadn't seen on her before. A smile of utter relief. I smiled back at her and pulled her into another hug. It was actually a relief to see that Ray actually wanted to be protected. Protection was something I could actually do. And she wanted _me_ to protect her, at that.

"Why?"

I frowned and pulled away from her. Why? What did she mean by that? She seemed to notice my confusion without me needing to write anything else out.

"I mean... why go to all the effort to protect me? I mean, aside from me being the sort of girl who needs protection."

I grinned slightly as I remembered back to when I had told her that. Al must have translated for her. It would have annoyed me had I know back then, but now I didn't really care. I started scribbling in the notebook again.

"_Because I hate seeing you hurt. It makes me want to rip out my hair when I see you cry like this." _

"Sorry," she whispered.

"_No, it's not your fault,"_ I wrote with a shake of my head. _"I want to know when you're upset so that I can comfort you, I just... I want to try and prevent you from being hurt, because I hate seeing it. I want you to be happy." _

I paused. I had to tell her. Al was right, I really needed to tell her. But did I really want to tell her just after she had cried her heart out and couldn't even hear me say so. I shook my head and started writing again. I was nuts.

"_And I also want to protect you because—" _

I paused again. There was no way I wanted to write it out. That just sucked. Ray frowned.

"Because what?"

I winced and held my pen to the paper. How else was I going to tell her?

No. I paused again. I could at least sign it out for her. I dropped the notebook and pencil to the bed and pointed to myself. _I. _Ray nodded, seeming confused as to why I was suddenly signing instead of writing. I sighed and formed my hands into a heart shape. _Love. _Ray nodded again.

I took a deep breath and closed my eyes. Time for the plunge. I kept my eyes closed and pointed at her.

Nothing happened. I opened my eyes slowly to see how she was reacting.

She was crying again. Oh crap. I hadn't meant to upset her. I fumbled for the notebook and started scrawling across it.

"_I'm sorry, Ray, I didn't mean to upset you, it's just that Al told me that I needed to tell you how I felt, and I just thought that I would tell you, and you don't have to say you love me back or anything, I just needed to tell you, you can tell me no if you want, you don't have to cry over—"_

I was stopped by a hand being placed over the paper. I stopped and looked up at Ray. She was still crying, but smiling at me through the tears. I blinked.

"Stop it, Ed," she whispered. "You big dummy. I love you too."

I stared at her. It didn't sink in. What did she say?

Wait a second. She said she loved me too. She. She. She loved. Loved me. Too. Me. Love. Her.

She was still smiling at me. I did the first thing that popped into my head. I hugged her.

Unfortunately, my hug seemed to be stronger when I was surprised and happy than when I was trying to comfort Ray. She let out a yelp as we both fell. At least the bed was there to provide a cushion to land on.

I buried my face against her neck, grinning like an idiot. She loved me. Ray actually said that she loved me. She loved me. I felt like I was on top of the world. Ray laughed and knotted her hands into my hair. I could feel my neck tingle.

We laid there for who knows how long, but I refused to let go of Ray, and she didn't complain over me holding her. So we ended up falling asleep like some sort of crazy twisted pretzel.

And for the first time in years, I felt like something was actually going right for once. If all the misery I had gone through before I met Ray was some sort of equivalent exchange for the happiness I was feeling at that point, than I knew I would have gone through all the pain again if I'd had the chance to change the past.

* * *

YOU GUYS GET FLUFF. SRSLY. WAS THIS NOT THE FLUFFIEST FLUFF CHAPTER EVEA?

-snickers- Yeah, really. I mean, I feel a little bit guilty making this chapter soooo absolutely packed with fluff, but I needed a pick me up, fluff makes me happy, and seriously, you guys have waited through 23 chapters and a sidestory for this.

So do you love me? I mean, yeah, Ray can't hear anything, but who doesn't love the idea of Ed doing the hand-heart?

Enjoy the fluff while it's here, because I swear, it's not going to last. It makes me cry inside, but if we had fluff all the time, there would be no fluff, and no one would care about the fluff anyway. Fluff is only effective in somewhat-small doses.

This was a pretty large dose, as far as fluff doses go. XD

Oh, yeah, and I did see Percy and the Olympians. On opening day, lol. My brother bought us all tickets for it. I didn't like it as much as the book, but then again, I like it better when the movie makers stick close to the original. Like the first two Harry Potter movies.


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